A Defiant Mask
by Autumn Amethyst
Summary: “Bloody Hell” are Lily’s first words when she learns that she’ll have to deal with James as Head Boy. B/C of past experience, she has an undying hatred for guys. She’s also fiercely stubborn and can be very disagreeable. But is it only a mask? ;
1. The Head Boy and The Objectionable Girl

**A/N: I decided to put my other new story on hold, because those ideas were too mixed up for me to add more right now. In the mean time, I decided to start this one ;) I hope you guys like it, when I thought of the idea it just seemed like it would be a lot of fun to write. So, anyway- thanks for reading!!**

**Title: A Defiant Mask **

**Summary: "Bloody Hell" are Lily's first words when she learns that she'll have to deal with James as Head Boy. B/C of past experience, she has an undying hatred for guys. She's also fiercely stubborn and can be very disagreeable. But is it only a mask? **

**Disclaimer: I own none of this, save the plot and some characters that you'll recognize as not being in the Hp books ;) The rest belongs to J.K. Rowling, of course!**

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Chapter One- The Head Boy and the Objectionable Girl

~

Lily glared roughly. "I'd appreciate it if you would tell me the truth."

"Just leave." Jake grunted, not looking up.

Lily's temper flared again. She picked up a nearby vase and shot it across the room, where it ended up splattering into the wall behind him. "You will tell me the truth! I've got the time, spit it out! Confess!" 

~

"CUT!" the director of the play yelled out. "Nice job everyone. Those of you who still have a part to play, we'll pick it up tomorrow." His deep voice boomed across the entire room without effort.

Lily Evans grunted, ran a hand through her dark auburn hair, and descended the stairs off of the stage. Heather, one of her best friends from Hogwarts, was waiting at the foot.

Before her dark-haired friend could say anything, Lily stated fiercely, "I hate plays!"

"Your mother would be disappointed to hear that." Heather smiled.  
  
  


Lily shrugged. "She needs a little disappointment in her life. I don't know why she insisted on signing me up for this play. She's punishing me for something."

Jake, who had played the main character in the play, appeared in front of Lily. He extended a hand. "It was nice to meet you, Lily. I hope that we'll be acting together again in the future." 

Lily scrunched up her noise and glanced at his hand, seemingly indecisive about whether she should take it or not. She felt Heather poke her from behind, and reluctantly accepted the handshake. "Yeah, wouldn't that be great…" she was highly unconvincing. Jake had the common sense to leave.

Lily simply laughed and Heather shook her head. "I don't think that I'll ever understand why you hate guys so much."

"Good, then save me from explaining it to you."

Heather's hazel eyes twinkled. "I don't know how you'll last through this year then. You know, you'll have to be working with the Head Boy."

Lily was mute.

"Speaking of the Head Boy," Heather was having trouble containing her mirth, "I found out who it is."

Lily's emerald eyes flashed with interest. "Do I need to ask you who? Go on, woman!"

"James Potter."

"Bloody Hell!"

Half the people in the room turned to stare. Some of them, noticing that it had been Lily, simply shook their heads knowingly and turned away.

Heather was laughing freely. "You have to get over it some time, Lils. You can't be single forever, you know."

"Oh yes I can. Guys are immature and don't know what they're talking about. They're either self-centered or retarded. Sometimes both," she finished thoughtfully. When Heather didn't respond, she added, "I don't need to get married. And I'm certainly not ever having kids." She shuddered at the thought.

"If I didn't know better, I would think that you're a lesbian." 

"That's nice."

Any normal person may be offended or annoyed by the thought. But Heather had learned a long time ago that Lily Evans simply wasn't normal. Secretly, she didn't think Lily hated guys either…she just pretended to. And she couldn't get her red-headed friend to explain why.

Heather realized in a matter of seconds that Lily was pulling on her sleeve. Mrs. Evans was here. And…Jessica!

"Jess! I haven't seen you in forever!" she ran over, almost tripping on her new, exotically designed skirt, and gave Jessica a hug. 

Lily stood off to the side, grinning. In a few seconds, they were both engulfed in a tight hug. 

"It's so great to see you guys!" Jessica said loudly, as usual. She wasn't one to be quiet. Her blond hair was pulled behind in a ponytail.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Lily mentioned, "You haven't been sending us letters."

"Believe me, they keep you busy at quidditch camp."

Heather and Lily smiled at one another. Lily turned to her mother. "Mum, I thought Jessica wasn't coming until tomorrow morning, before we leave for King's Cross."

Mrs. Evans gave them a pleasant smile. "Thought I'd give you girls a surprise. How did the play go?"

"It was horrible." Lily replied in total seriousness.

"Right. Into the car, everyone!" 

@@@@@@

Lily lay on top of her sleeping bag, grinning at Jessica while she tried to brush her blonde hair out. It had grown long over the summer. 

Heather was sitting off to the side. She glanced up, snapping her book shut. "Are we ready to begin our nighttime girl talk?"

"What?!" Jessica turned around.

"Oh, excuse me. I forgot that Jessica's here." She grinned. "Would you rather we have a sports discussion?"

"Yes, I-"

"We can do that later." Lily said, rolling her eyes. "This is gonna be our last year at Hogwarts guys! It has to be fun."

Lily's mum poked her head in the door, glanced around, and smiled as if she knew something they didn't. "You better not stay up too late. I'll be waking you up early to leave. You don't want to miss the Hogwarts Express!"

"No, mother. That would be the end of the world."

Mrs. Evans didn't take the hint, and instead stepped into the room. "I really think you're going to have fun at school this year. At my, er- Muggle high school, I remember my last year. Filled with all sorts of fun. And dating." She added as an afterthought.

Lily groaned. _Not again. As if living with her is not embarrassing enough. _

"Lily, I know that guys at school are after you. Being my beautiful daughter…" Lily closed her eyes and tuned out. When she opened them, her mum was gone and her friends were laughing.

"Lils, speaking of making this year fun…your mum is right. We think it's time to get you involved with a guy."

"Hell no."

"Like I said before: Lesbianism…" Heather said, winking.  
  
  


"If you're not a lesbian, don't try to fill one's shoes!" Jessica added.

Lily looked bewildered and confused at the same time. "You're both mad. And I'm going to bed."

@@@@@@

Lily shifted again. It was useless! She simply couldn't go back to sleep. She propped herself up on an elbow and her eyes scanned over the two lumps beside her. She sighed, seeing that they were both sound asleep.

Tip-toeing out the door wasn't easy. She had to stop once or twice to rub the toes that she kept hitting on random objects.

She walked all the way back to her room (they had been sleeping in the living room, on the floor, since it was bigger), and spread out across her bed, staring at the ceiling.

She thought back to the discussion earlier that evening. _Why does everyone insist that I get a boyfriend? Well…I guess they don't know why I don't want to. They don't understand because I won't tell them. I can't trust men anyway…_

Lily had had a boyfriend, for their information. A few years ago. He had been like any guy…unless you had a relationship with him. Controlling, spiteful. She still had the emotional scars. Since then, she had decided that all guys were the same. All of them. They weren't worth her time, and so in order to get rid of them, she was very rude. She grinned. It was a rather enjoyable pastime to think of the guys she had put down. _A constant war.__ That's what it is. A constant war._

She refused to admit that it would be nice to have a guy that she could depend on and cuddle up with. _It's never going to happen anyway. And I'm wasting my time here. Lily realized that she was much sleepier and had forgotten why she had come all the way over here anyway. She rose from the bed, stretched, and walked slowly back to her sleeping bag._

@@@@@@

"Time to get up!" Mrs. Evans said loudly, cheerfully. The three of them groaned as one, refusing to open their eyes and admit that horrid bright light of morning.

"It's too early." Lily groaned.

Mrs. Evans ignored her. "I'll be making breakfast."

After a few minutes of lying there like lumps, each of them got up and rubbed their eyes in an annoyed fashion. Slowly, they grabbed their clothes that they had set out for today and pulled them on without caring that they might all look like arisen dead people.

Lily smiled when she saw Heather's choice of clothing. Always the original person. And Jessica…sporty, of course.

They walked out together after making sure that their trunks were packed and ready. The sweet smell of homemade pancakes overwhelmed them, and they were drawn to the already set table.

Their eyes were slowly becoming wider and less sleepy. "Can you believe that we're already leaving for Hogwarts again?" Jessica asked, taking a sip of orange juice.

"What I can't believe is that this is the last time. Our last year." Heather pointed out.

"Sort of sad, isn't it?" Lily added, squeezing syrup onto her plate.

Half an hour later they were all squeezed into the car with their trunks and Mrs. Evans.

"I'm positive that you girls are going to have fun this year. You'll have to keep your father and I informed Lily. Send us some letters…er, owls."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Where is dad?"

"He's working this morning."

"Oh. Well tell him I said bye." 

"I will, dear."

The three girls were silent for awhile. They had barely even touched their hair, and looked as if they had just gotten out of bed. Their reasoning for that- well, they had.

The car came to a sudden stop, and it was apparent that they were there. Mrs. Evans got out first, smiled when she saw that they weren't moving, and pulled them out of the car. Reluctantly, they grabbed a hold of their trunks and turned to look at Lily's mum.

"Thanks Mrs. Evans." Heather and Jessica said together, smiling.

"Of course, dears. It's always been nice to have you over. I'm glad Lily has such sweet friends." With those words, she embraced Lily in a suffocating hug. The other girls waited.

Once Lily was released, she mumbled a, "Bye, mum." and the three of them walked through the crowd to the barrier of platform 9 ¾. Heather, Jessica, and Lily walked through one by one.

On the other side, they found themselves amidst a large bulk of wizards and witches. They grinned. 

"Time to have some fun again." Heather laughed. They glanced around as they made their way to the compartment of their choice. They plopped themselves down in the seats, very ready to get to Hogwarts.

"This year really is going to be great. Lily- I'm so happy for you! Head Girl! I can't believe we've finally come this far." Jessica stated in a loud voice. They felt the train lurch forward.

Suddenly, their door was opened and a head popped in. Gelled black hair, brown eyes, and a tall stature signaled that it was James Potter. The Head Boy.

"Er, hi." He said, glancing around and attempting to smile. His eyes rested on Lily. He took a moment before speaking again. "Dumbledore, um, told me that I was supposed to find you so that we could talk before the Welcoming Feast."

Lily looked annoyed. "Fine. Then let's get it over with." She glanced at her grinning friends angrily. Mouthing, 'you guys are annoying me', she followed James out the door and closed it behind her.

"What are we supposed to talk about?"

"Well, you see…he left that part out of his letter." James smiled at her. "Have we ever met?"

Lily mumbled, "I hope not." out of his range of hearing. To him, she replied, "I don't think so, why?"

"I just thought I would remember such a pretty girl, had we talked." He turned away while she opened her mouth in surprise.

Suddenly, she clamped it shut, becoming more angry. He motioned for her to follow, and led them into a nearby empty compartment.

"What makes you think you can say that to me?" Lily stepped in front of him. "Huh?"

He looked confused and surprised, and simply stared at her. "What do you mean?" 

"I'm not just anyone that you can hit on, you know!"

James still looked confused. "Excuse me?"

"Are you retarded?"

"Thank you, no." James replied, grinning. "I was giving you a compliment, Lily."

"It was unwanted."

He was still grinning. _I like this girl. Feisty one, we have here. Sirius would be very amused by this conversation. Especially because I'm being an idiot again. Oh well._

"Well excuse me for that."

She looked triumphant. 

"But I still think you're attractive."

Her eyes narrowed again. "What did you want to say James? Why do we need to talk anyway?"

He shrugged, his brown eyes watching her closely. "I told you, Dumbledore…" suddenly, his eyes lit up. "I have met you before! In fourth year- you slapped me, remember?"

She grinned. "Of course I do. It was very entertaining."

He was laughing. "You going to again?"

"I dunno. If you keep annoying me, then probably." She replied seriously.

  
He stopped laughing. "Well, I guess we've talked…my friends wanted to plan a prank, anyway…I like you Lily, you're funny."

"Whatever you want to think." She replied, already out the door.

James stared after her, running a hand through his gelled hair, which he spiked so that it looked like he meant to do it…but it probably would have on its own anyway. _Was she kidding? He wondered. __I have a feeling that's a very complex girl. I do like her though…lively one. He laughed and turned back to his compartment._

@@@@@@

"How'd the…meeting go, Lily?" Heather asked when she walked back into the room huffing.

"Another idiot! I swear, I'm surrounded!"

"Well thanks." Jessica said. 

"No- I don't mean you guys," she grinned, "well, maybe sometimes."

"Well what happened that you're upset about?" Heather inquired. 

"He tried to hit on me!"

Jessica and Heather exchanged glances and burst out laughing. "Oh- it's the end of the world!"

When they finally quieted down, Lily was standing in front of them, staring with her arms crossed.

"Well, Lils, guys have hit on you before."

"Yeah, but not guys that I have to work with all year."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure that by the end of the year _someone will have changed your mind."_

"Yeah, that's what you think." She turned away from them and smiled when they couldn't see.

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**A/N: That was fun to write…thanks for reading it! I'd like to know how it came out, so if you guys could drop me a note it would be really nice. Everyone who writes something here knows that reviews are absolutely wonderful! Lol, so let me know if you liked it. If not…then don't lie. Tell me it sucked =)**


	2. You Tempt Me

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews- you all made me grin! And while I was studying for biology too…must be some sort of new record. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, it was fun to write too…maybe even more than the first ;) Replies to the reviewers can be found at the end of the chapter!**

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Chapter Two- You tempt me

Lily stared out the train window, watching fields and mountains and grass roll by in a blur. Vaguely, she took note of voices speaking to her.

          "Lily?" Heather was staring at her, and Jessica was grinning.

"What?"

          "Some reason you're ignoring us?"

Lily laughed and turned around to face them. "Besides the fact that you're irritating?" 

          "Ah, come on. We're not that bad." Jessica opened her mouth to state otherwise, but Heather poked her in the side.

          Lily grinned. "Where _is the food cart?"_

"I dunno- let's go find it. Maybe she forgot about us." Jessica said, energetically jumping up out of her seat.

          "Okay." Lily and Heather replied, following her out of the compartment. They passed through several others; obtaining weird looks from most of the students they went past. Then suddenly, Heather grabbed onto their shirts and said,

          "There she is!" The old, frayed witch was smiling gently, her eyes watching the cart as she pushed it. The three of them started toward it.

 Hearing voices from one compartment, one that sounded familiar, Lily stopped curiously to eavesdrop. Her friends failed to notice, and advanced to the food without her.

She smiled simply and pressed her ear against the closed door. 

"So Prongs, what did the Head Girl have to say?" 

          She scowled, realizing where this was going, and only pressed her ear closer. She heard a laugh. "Well, not much. Besides to get out of her face. Not those exact words, but you know what I mean…"

          "Bitchy, then?" another voice. This guy seemed skeptical. 

A second laugh. "I dunno…she was rather funny, if you ask me. Attractive, too, like I said…"

          Lily simply couldn't take any more. She opened the door and stepped in with force. Four boys swiveled their heads toward her, one in disbelief, the other three simply staring and looking amused.

          Slowly, she advanced on James, until he began to back away. "What was that you were saying?" she asked softly, but in sharp tone. "Surely whatever it was can be said to my face. Don't mind me, for interrupting. Go on." 

          "I- er.." James stared at her. 

"Just what I thought." She started to turn away, but he grinned abruptly. "What are you smiling about?"

          "If I told you, you would probably try to strangle me…" his friends snickered. 

Lily took no notice of them. "You're probably right." She turned to the other boys. "As for you three-"

          "Lils!" Heather and Jessica appeared in the doorway. They took one look at the situation and to the exasperation of the guys in the compartment, burst out laughing. "Lily, I think it's time we get going…" Heather said, grabbing a hold of one of her arms and Jessica the other. They tugged her out of the door with only one backwards glance. 

          "But- I wasn't finished in there!" Lily said, trying to free herself from their grasp.

          "No doubt you weren't. But I'm pretty sure you made your point…" Jessica was thoroughly amused-looking.

          "Do we have to keep you on one of those muggle child leashes, Lily? Or will you listen to your poor friends?"

          Lily scowled good-naturedly. "They were talking about me, what did you expect?"

          "Did you see their faces?" Heather asked, finally letting out a laugh as they re-entered their compartment.

          "They looked like they were about to pee on themselves!"

"If you two are finished, then I suggest we change into our robes…" Lily said, despite her wide grin.

          "Are we that close?" Jessica asked, glancing out the window.

~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~

          "Yep, James. That's the perfect girl for you!" Remus smacked his leg, laughing uproariously. Their initial shock had worn off rather quickly.

          Sirius added with a grin, "I suppose he did warn us, at that."

"Yeah, just before she burst in looking like someone had stolen her shoes right off of her!" Peter laughed along, munching on a chocolate frog.

          "I don't find this amusing." James jumped in, shaking his head. "I can't believe she heard that! Girls aren't supposed to overhear us talking about them!"

          "Oh, but she apparently has a way of making herself different."

"Why haven't we come across her before, Prongs?" Sirius asked thoughtfully.

          "Oh, who knows. She's a Gryffindor too. That's what Dumbledore said, anyway."

          "Is Dumbledore your new best friend or something?"

James rolled his eyes. In an attempt to change the subject, "Anyone up for a game of chess?"

          "I want to finish eating first." Peter said.

Remus and Sirius simply sat there grinning.

~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~

          Lily sat down in the middle of Heather and Jessica at the Gryffindor table. All three of them glanced around; soaking in what was new since the year before. Nice decorations.

          Lily spotted a flash of spiky black hair and did not refrain from scowling. He was watching her. And she didn't appreciate it one bit. About to get up and tell him that, Jessica poked her quickly in the side.

          "What is-"she began, but Dumbledore cut her off.

"Welcome students! You must tire of me giving you almost the same speech every year, so guess what? I'm going to be quiet and let you enjoy your food. That is, after our Sorting Ceremony, of course."

          A line of first years entered the Great Hall, a good deal nervous. McGonagall, as usual, stepped forward and solemnly began calling out names, as if it were a funeral procession. Lily smiled in remembrance of her Sorting day, like she did every year. She did, however, realize that one student in the line could hardly have been a first year. He looked to be about their age.

          "And Whitemark, Luke." McGonagall said. She turned to the crowd while Luke settled himself on the stool. "Luke is a seventh year student, transferred from America. I hope you'll all show him the way around."

          "GRYFFINDOR!" the hat announced, almost without any hesitation. Luke flashed Lily's table a white grin. His dirty blond hair flopped into his face as he stood. He was rather attractive…nice body, too. 

          "Lils, you can't tell me that that one isn't good-looking." Heather winked at her. Lily shrugged, inwardly agreeing with her friend. _Gosh, it's really too bad that I've denounced guys for all time…Never mind, I take that back. She frowned, noticing that James was __still watching her. __Fine.__ If he wants to play this game, I'll just beat him. She refused to take any notice of his dark eyes, even when she could feel them grazing her face._

          Jessica and Heather, meanwhile, were busy watching the new American guy, Luke. With apparent ease, he sat himself down near the Marauders, cutely grinning at them.

          Heather twirled a strand of dark brown hair around her finger. "Oh, how I would like to pick that one up."

"Yeah, maybe in a few days." Jessica winked. 

          Lily simply rolled her eyes and began to pick at the food that appeared in front of them. She was very keen with her eyesight though, and continued to watch James and his friends from the corner of her eye, taking care that nobody noticed.

          "So, what's the agenda for this evening?" Heather asked, wiping her mouth and setting down her fork.

          "I say sleep." Jessica yawned.

Lily nodded and stood up. Just as she turned around, she noticed Dumbledore advancing towards her, James hovering around him. 

          "Miss Evans." Dumbledore smiled politely at her. "I'm so glad to have such a dependable Head Girl. Not that our past students have not been…for that is one of our requirements." He glanced behind him at James, who had been smiling weakly at Lily, which had caused her to look annoyed.

          "Yes, Professor. Did you need something? Anything I could do to help out?"

"Well, Miss Evans. At the moment, the only really helpful thing you and James might do is to get to know each other better. It's far too early to start planning anything, but it would be nice for you to be able to work well together when the time comes. Not that I don't have faith in you," he favored them with another smile, "I do. I know that you'll do Hogwarts proud this year."

          Heather and Jessica were snickering from behind Lily, trying to pretend that they weren't listening at all. It was almost as if _they had talked __Dumbledore into this. In any case, Lily never knew… "Of course, Professor. Whatever you want us to do."_

          "I suggest you two meet up in the Heads room this evening, at whatever time. I needed you to be introduced to the area anyway, as you'll probably be spending a good deal of time there this year."

          "Yes, sir." Lily mumbled as politely as she could, smiling without emotion.

"Thanks, Miss Evans." His eyes twinkled as he moved away. "And you too, Mr. Potter." He called back.

          James advanced on Lily. _Do I sense a little hesitance? So I am__ winning… "Er- Lily, how about eight tonight?"_

          "Yeah, whatever," she mumbled insolently.

"He told me already that our 'tower'…I suppose it is a tower…" Lily rolled her eyes, so he continued quickly. "well, it's not too far from the Gryffindor tower. I can meet you outside the portrait hole, and I'll show you the way. He gave me a map and…"

          "Fine." She cut him off and turned away. "Ready?" Not waiting for her friends' answers, she slipped away and out of the Hall.

~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~

          James walked with the other Marauders. That Luke fellow was lagging behind them. _How full of himself can one guy be? I have a feeling that he isn't going to be a pleasant roommate. And we had enjoyed only the four of us in our dorm, anyway…_

          The fifth boy who had shared a dorm with them had left in third year, transferring to a different school. And now they had the nerve to place another guy in with the Marauders. And a self-centered one, at that. 

          "He reminds me of Gilderoy Lockhart." Sirius whispered to the others.

"Who?" James asked.

          "Oh, just this wizard that all of the girls think are cute. Supposedly, he's supposed to be out chasing werewolves or something…But it just doesn't strike me as something someone who wears his cap a certain way would do." Remus murmured.

          They approached their dorm and Sirius traditionally kicked the door open. The four Marauders stepped in, grinning.

          "What? It's…clean."

"Amazing."

          "Alright- time to mess it up!"

They started throwing things around, as they usually did, while Luke stood in the doorway appearing bewildered.

          "Do they let you do that here?"

The guys stopped to stare at him. "What do you mean by _let us?"_

          "Who says they have to let us do anything." Peter answered. "We do what we want, here in this dorm."

          "If you can't abide by that, then I suggest-" Sirius was cut off.

"No, I think this'll be great!" Luke flashed them another smile and stepped into the room, shutting the door. "Which bed is mine?"

          "The one by the bathroom." Remus answered, not looking so happy about any of this. To think of it- another guy invading their space. It was preposterous!

          "Now, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow, guys," Sirius' grin included all of them, minus Luke, "and-"

          "Oh, shoot!" James interrupted suddenly.

"What?" Peter and the rest looked at him inquiringly.

          "I was supposed to have met Lily ten minutes ago! I've gotta go!"

Remus burst out laughing. "You'd better hope she doesn't try to kill you."

          James stopped to grin at them. "Yeah- if I'm not back in an hour….then just wait longer." He finished with a wink and disappeared out the door.

~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~

          Lily tapped her foot against the floor impatiently. _He's driving me crazy and I haven't even talked to him for a full half hour yet. Where is he?  She watched the unmoving portrait hole with contempt. __If he isn't here in two seconds, I'm going to…_

          Suddenly, it sprang to life, and out tumbled James Potter. He looked flustered, glancing at her nervously.

          "Er- this way." He said, walking down to the right.

"Now just wait one minute!" Lily said loudly. "Where were you? Don't tell me that you didn't notice that you were fifteen minutes late!"

          "I did…I was, um, held up for personal reasons. Sorry, Lily."

He did appear sincere with his apology, so Lily decided to let it go…this time.

          "Fine. Don't let it happen again."

"You're starting to remind me of McGonagall."

          Lily began to laugh, then remembered what she was about, and stopped to glare at him. He shrugged.

          "Here we are." They stopped before a large portrait of an owl. It hooted softly at them. 

          "Wool Socks" James stated quickly, and the owl hooted again before moving aside.

          Lily turned to him in amusement. "Wool socks?"

James grinned back. "Yeah- Dumbledore said we could change it." He barked a laugh. "I dunno. I find it rather amusing."

          The conversation ended as they walked in. It was a large room. Marble tiles covered the floor, with a fireplace spreading light throughout the chamber. Little candles hanging in their holders lined the walls. A few old paintings and artwork decorated the scene. Lily opened her mouth in slight disbelief. She moved farther into the room, noticing two doors next to each other, opposite the fireplace. 

          She opened one and saw that it was a brilliant bathroom…even better than the prefects'. The pool looked rather inviting…and that hot tub. She contained a grin and moved on to the next door. A bedroom? She snorted. Like she was about to sleep here, where _he had access. There were two twin beds, on separate sides of the room, and the same type of curtain surrounding them as in the dorms. Even if she would never use it, this room was also rather nice._

          Lily turned around and spotted James still in the marble floored room, scanning a bookshelf near the fireplace.

          "There are some pretty cool books here, Lily." He said, sensing her presence behind him. _Yeah, and now he's going to tell me that he loves to read. She almost laughed. For her, and a guy, to share the same pastimes was...improbable._

          "Uh-huh." She replied, dropping onto and sinking into the couch in front of the flaming fireplace. She sighed in delight. What a pleasant place to do homework. That is, as long as he didn't have the same idea…

          "So, Lily." He said, and she noticed that he had seated himself next to her. "What d'you wanna talk about?"

          "What do you think?"

"How should I know?" he replied, confused. "All you've done so far is yell at me."

          Her face heated up, and she wasn't sure herself whether it was from the slight sting of shame (unlikely), or from annoyance. "Yeah, well you deserved it." She defended.

          "That's what I like about you." He smiled, scooting a little closer, to her careful awareness. "You don't care what other people, other girls do, and you much less try to be the same."

          _Oh, I wasn't always this way. Lily thought to herself. __I hated being shy…and I hated everything that came with it. And I forced myself to change. And now…well, I'm a disagreeable person. Much better than being too shy. Yes, much. "Yeah." She replied weakly, before she knew that it had come from her lips. Weak? Her? She almost grinned and wanted to make up for her last statement…but then, she noticed that James was considerably closer than before…_

          For a second, she forgot herself. She let him lean close, even anticipated it. And then, her moment of willing compliance ended. She scooted away and shot him a glare. "What are you doing?"

          "I wanted to kiss you…" he said uncertainly, attempting to get in a smile. She continued to glare at him.  "I'm sorry, but you tempt me."

          She rose from the couch angrily, turning to face him. "Well that's too bad. It's never going to happen. The sooner you realize that, the better." She replied, walking away. He tried to catch her arm while he laughed, but it didn't happen. She was gone already. _That's what she thinks. __I prefer to believe otherwise._

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**A/N: Hehe, I like this story more as I continue. Well, in any case- I'm really glad you liked the first chapter and I hope this one follows it up well enough. Please review! ;) The more reviews- the quicker the next chapter comes up!**

Thanks to all of you reviewers out there, it means a lot to me!

**angelsmelody13-**** I'm so happy you liked the first chapter! I hope you continue to read. And thanks for the offer (of help)! Might need it sometime…****ToonedIn****- Lol, well, you're the second reviewer ;) Anyway, in regards to the paragraph issue, I tried to fix that in this chapter- I hope it's better. If not, let me know and I'll see what I else I can do about it. Thanks for your review; I really appreciate it! ****Empress- Really? You added me to your fav story list? That's awesome! Thanks a lot! About your suggestion- I will get to that, eventually ;) But I'm glad you brought it up, it made me realize that I should probably get into that, shouldn't I? Anyway, thanks again! ****TheYellowSubmarine****- You never fail to review my stories, do you? You should know how much I appreciate that!! It really does mean a lot to me to have a faithful reviewer ;) Now- the HTML problem. Hehe, don't know much about computers myself. But are you using Microsoft Word? If you are, all that I do is click save as, when I'm saving, and save it under Web Page. I indent normally and don't skip lines in paragraphs…only hit return. It works for me…but if you're still having problems let me know and I'll see what else I can do to help =) ****btownbabe****- Lol, I'm happy you like it so far ;) I hope you keep reading and thanks a bunch for reviewing! ****Iloverupert13- I've always had problems with interesting dialogue…so you can imagine how happy I was about your comment ;) Thanks a lot…hope you liked this chapter too! ****evillalmanotlamma****(****frogs- I'm glad you liked the beginning! Hopefully it'll stay that way…I enjoyed writing this chapter, but I don't suppose that means that everyone will enjoy reading ;) Thank you! ****Raven-gal2002- That I'll do ;) Update soon, I mean, lol. Hope you liked this chapter! ****Punkkittin01- Lol, well hopefully we'll see about her liking him later on…but you know the basic story ;) I'm just going to elaborate a bit.  Thanks for the review!! ****Sirius' lover- Thanks for another review; I'm glad you read almost all my stories ;) If not all, at that. Hehe, I'm glad you thought it didn't suck!! ****KoolKitty/AnotherKoolKitty/Aria****- Don't worry about me thinking you're weird ;) It won't happen…it turns out that my mind is much weirder than anyone might suspect. But anyway- I'm glad you reviewed! Lol, and I will continue…I actually wrote this chapter only a few hours after I posted the first…and I've already started on the next. Too bad I have to write it periodically and I can't just sit down and finish though…oh well- I'll talk to you soon! ****ChickenSoup3- I'm happy you think so ;) Thanks!**

I'm sorry for this list of thank you's taking up so much space- but I always feel like I should respond to reviews or it might seem sort of pointless to review in the first place. Plus, when you guys ask me questions, I can't just not respond ;) hehe


	3. Hush Day

Chapter Three- Hush Day

            Lily glanced around the shadowy dorm suspiciously. But no friends were awaiting her. She breathed a sigh of relief and dropped onto her bed. _Well that was odd. What's up with James? Or should I call him Potter? Who knows…interested in me…she snorted in amusement._

            A quiet scuffling drifted to her from the opposite side of the room. Apparently, she had been wrong. "Oh, give it up. You're no good at surprising me."

            "Damn!" Jessica and Heather appeared, grinning impishly. They flipped the lights on and turned to face Lily, who was sitting there smiling amusedly at them while twirling a long strand of auburn hair around her finger.

            "What was your brilliant plan this time?"

"Well- we were going to try the good old grab your feet in the dark and pull you off the bed, but-"   

            Lily shook her head. "I meant your plan for tonight."

"Oh. Right."

            "Is anyone else dreading our first day of classes?"

Before they could answer, the door burst open and in popped two boys who looked rather familiar. _Oh…James' friends…Lily remembered grimly._

            "What in the name of-"

The two boys paid them no mind, and slammed the door. After a moment of frantic panting and giving each other high fives, they turned around. "Now- what was that?"

            "Er-" Lily stared at them blankly. 

"Is there some reason you're in our dorm?" Jessica advanced on them, blue eyes gleaming in good nature.

            "Well, you see- we played a rather nasty trick on James and he was chasing us…we figured this would be the last place he would want to go, since Lily's in here…" The boy with scattered brown hair replied in a rush. "By the way, I'm Remus."

            The other one, with slightly longer dark hair, gave them a deep grin and a wink. He was holding something behind his back. "I'm Sirius. I don't think you'll have trouble remembering us, since-"

            "YOU GUYS ARE EVIL! EVIL, I SAY!" James' voice erupted from outside the door. "Give me back those pants!"

            "Oh, but Prongs, you were telling us how much Lily strikes your fancy…here's you chance to show off a little…leg."

            There was a loud grunt in response.

"You can't have em back until you come in…" Sirius sang to the door.

            The four of them inside the room caught random mutterings, including…"Impossible. Just impossible."

            Suddenly, the door opened so that a little sliver could be seen, and James' dark eye came into view. "There is absolutely _no way that I'm-"_

            Sirius stepped away from James' reach, with the pants, and Remus casually pulled the door open, so that James tumbled in. His cheeks flushed and after glaring violently at his friends, he tried to cover himself up while watching Lily's expression.       

            Lily was looking surprisingly placate, considering the laughter that surrounded her. However, the edges of her lips were curled abnormally…

            James flushed pink and ran in circles after Sirius, who waved the pants above his head teasingly. His rather…little boyish boxers were causing Lily's friends to stare. 

            "It's not nice to be less than presentable in other people's dorms, James." Lily said to him, just short of laughing. Her emerald eyes twinkled.

            James frowned at her. Giving up on his friends, and realizing that everyone had already seen him without pants, he approached the red-head. 

            "Yes, but I know you like it." He stopped a few inches before her.

"You wish." She grinned, but did appear a little uncomfortable about standing that close to him.

            The rest of the commotion in the room ceased to watch the Heads of Hogwarts. One might have called it entertainment.

            "So James- did you magically enlarge those children's boxers to fit you? Or I suppose you didn't need to…"

            James rolled his eyes. "Very funny." He leaned closer, whispering something in her ear, oblivious of the fact that everyone else in the room had leaned forward in one movement to try and hear. They didn't…but Lily did. She scowled and resumed her look of violence. 

            James, sadly, was not one to take hints. He rested a hand on her hip as casually as he could manage.

            "Out, OUT! All of you!" Lily tore his hand away from her and dragged him to the door- shoving him out and closing it firmly. Then she realized that the other two golden boys were still with them. She sighed. "I think it's about time to paint fingernails, women…" The boys bowed and left swiftly.

            "Are we really going to paint our fingernails? Gosh, it's been a long time…"

"Don't be silly!" Jessica replied, the same time Lily said, "I think we should do Jessica first."

~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~

            James sighed on his bed. "I wouldn't have minded had you not gone into Lily's dorm."

            "But that was the whole point, you see." Remus replied, grinning. 

"Really, we helped you out. Now it'll be easier to talk to Lily- since you'll have pants. The worst part is over with, Prongs!" Sirius' blue eyes stared innocently.

            "With you two, the worst is never over."

Remus turned to the dark-haired Sirius. "Sounds paranoid, doesn't he?"

            James grunted. "I'm not paranoid!" he paused for a thoughtful moment. "Which of my enemies told you this?"

            They chuckled to themselves while climbing into their beds and turning off the lights.

~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~

            It was no big deal, really to James, that he was attracted to Lily Evans. She was eye-catching, was all. The real problem was that he had never wanted a relationship. He didn't want a family. All that would do is weigh him down; keep him from doing other things that he wanted to. He was very ambitious about what he wanted to do…even if he wasn't totally sure what that was yet. 

            His father, and mother, had pushed him since he was little about becoming successful. He had sort of accepted the fact that all his parents cared about was money and how much he was going to make. If he hadn't been Head Boy, then he had a feeling that he would have failed them. 

            And so he had come to the conclusion that a wife would not be good for him, nor would any children. He didn't want to get married; what was the point? This was the actual problem before him- he felt strangely towards this Lily, and he didn't know what to do about it.

            "James? Jamie? Prongs?" Sirius was leaning over the Gryffindor table and staring at his friend, who was staring at his plate.

            "Er- what?" James snapped out of it and looked up.

"Oh, noth- Peter! About time you join us- where have you been lately?"

            "Well, y'know. Around." Peter replied, plopping himself down beside James.

"In other words, you were with that Hufflepuff girl."

            "Exactly." He spooned large amounts of food onto his plate.

Out of the corner of his eye, James spotted Dumbledore getting up from his seat.

            "Good evening, students. I hope you're enjoying your dinner, and I'm sure your first day back went well." He smiled quickly. "Let's see…the staff and I have decided on making tomorrow a…special day." the Hall quieted down at the word 'special'. "A new idea- and we find it rather fun. Tomorrow will be Hush Day. You see, at the beginning of the day, all of the girls will be given a pin. They won't be allowed to talk to the guys all day, and if they do, they must give their pin up to the guy they spoke to. At the end of the day, prizes will be given to the girls who still have their pins, and to the guy who obtained the most pins." The students of Hogwarts stared at him. It took them a moment to realize what was really going on.

            "Excellent!" Luke said from Sirius' side. The Marauders turned to look at him. 

"You know, you have a funny accent."

            "Me?" Luke asked. "Yeah right, that's you guys."

"We're English."

            "And I'm American."

Remus turned to Sirius. "I don't think he's getting the point."

            James, meanwhile, was watching Lily. _With this Hush Day, I may have a chance…she won't be able to talk to me all day. He grinned to himself._

~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~

Lily beamed at her friends while Professor McGonagall passed out the pins. _This will be nice. I've always wanted an excuse to not talk to any guys. Carefully, she attached it to her robes, along with her Head Girl badge._

            "This officially starts Hush Day." McGonagall announced. "Girls- I caution you. Men can be quite annoying when they feel the need."

            _Men are annoying anyway. In any case, these here certainly aren't men…She watched as James approached her from the other side of the room, abandoning his friends, who were busy chatting away to the girls over there. __Oh crap…I forgot about him! How the hell am I supposed to not yell at him, if he's going to try and talk to me all day? She firmly resolved that if she was going to lose her pin, it would __not be to James Potter._

            "Hello Lily. Fancy seeing you here." He smiled pleasantly. "Nice first class of the day, eh? Everyone seems so happy…" he glanced around the room, taking in many annoyed girls and amused guys. Lily simply scowled at him. 

            _Damn the guy. He's so…cocky._

"You know, I was thinking that you could come to Hogsmeade with me…" he casually rested a hand on her shoulder and wrapped another around her waist. She attempted to ignore him and glanced at her friends. 

            "I'm _so glad that I can talk to you guys. I don't think I could last otherwise…"_

"Oh, but Lily. You should feel honored to have a guy so obviously hung up on you."

            "Yeah, that's right, my Lily." He stopped, confused. "I'm not…" he looked to Lily's friends, who were grinning. "Alright, so maybe I do think she's good-looking. What do you say to that Lils?"

            Lily groaned. 

"Alright, students. You'll have time for this…game, in the halls. It's time to start class. Settle down!" McGonagall raised her voice out of need. She stared at them with a stony expression. "I don't understand why Albus insists on doing these things…" she mumbled quietly. _McGonagall__ to the rescue once again.__ I really should thank her some day._

            They began an intense study of transfiguring rocks into quills. Lily felt herself dropping off, but managed to keep her eyes open solely because of James' annoying caresses and winks.

            At the end of class, she sprang from her seat, and with her friends directly behind her, sprinted out the door.

            "This is hell already!" she exclaimed. 

"Tell me about it. I can't take anymore." Jessica said, shaking her head.  
            "I can't see myself keeping the darn thing until the end of the day."

"Oh, shoot! I left my ink back in the classroom! You guys keep going; I'll meet you in Astronomy."

            "Okay." They both called after her.

In a rush, she entered the room to find that McGonagall wasn't there. She approached her ink and quill, screwing the top on and talking to herself. She didn't notice that James was also still in the room.

            "This is _so not fun. I'm gonna have to say something to Dumbledore about-"_

"About what, my little Lily?" James asked, having come up right behind her.

            Her bright green eyes flared and she spun around quickly, not knowing how close they were. She was about two inches away from him, and he wasn't moving back. She opened her mouth to say something and halted….she couldn't speak to him.

            James watched her closely, his eyes scanning her face and coming to rest on her lips. He smiled, and before she could do anything about it, lowered his mouth to hers. 

            Lily raised her hands up in between them, about to push him away, but then stopped. They slid around him instead. He smiled through the kiss and refused to pull back for fear of obtaining a red mark on his face…

            But Lily wasn't backing away. Granted, he didn't allow her much space to do it. But she could have. She could have, and that told him something. The tables had turned, and he was indeed winning this war. Well, this battle, in any case…

            Lily sighed into his mouth, and then suddenly she realized what was going on and her eyes popped open, staring at him. She pulled back quickly, wiping her mouth. A quick glance at him and she looked about to say something. Then she glanced down at her pin and closed her mouth. 

            "That was…nice, Lils." He said softly, trying to lean in again. She glared at him and pushed his hand away; pushed him away. 

            Frantically, she grabbed a hold of her ink and quill and left the room without a backwards glance.

~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~

            _I am so incredibly stupid. She watched James out of the corner of her eye. __And it will never happen again, that's for sure. I didn't even enjoy it anyway…Somehow, she felt like she was lying to herself. __But that isn't true. I really didn't like it. Really. And I should never have let him touch me. Well, I know better now, at least._

            "Thank heavens I can finally speak to everyone again!" Heather dropped into her seat across from Lily, and Jessica beside her. 

            "Yeah." Lily replied, softly. Her two friends glanced at her, then each other, and shrugged.

            Dumbledore's beaming smile carried across the entire room. "Now, to announce the winner! Luke Whitemark, would you please come up here?"

            Luke grinned charmingly and walked up to Dumbledore, his robe covered in pins.

"He only got those because he…he startled the girls with that damn accent of his. They all think it's _cute."_

            Lily heard James' voice a few seats down and purposefully ignored it.

"And ladies who are still with a pin, come up during or after dinner, we have some goodies for you." He paused. "I found this day a success." Murmurs were raised in the crowd. He smiled. "However, the ladies at Hogwarts have demanded that another day be planned where the guys must be silent...so I will be looking into it. You need not be so forceful with your requests, however." his eyes twinkled as he resumed his seat.

            Lily barely heard any of it. _No, never again._

@

**A/N: Well, that was fun. I enjoy doing what I do (writing- for those people as asleep as I am), but guess what? Reviews make it better!!**

**~Emily~**

**Snoopy- Lol that she may. Didn't plan it exactly at first, but it sort of happened that way. Thank you so much! ****Sirius' lover- =) Thanks for reviewing again…and I'm trying to update all of my fics as often as possible. ****Jericho****-sama- Lol, I never know what to say either…especially not in reply to reviews. But simply knowing that you like the story makes me very happy. ****The-m-chick- Hehe, I'm glad to see you back! Glad you like it too…and I'll try to update often. ****TheYellowSubmarine****- Lol, I'm tempted to get them together, but I was thinking the same thing. They must suffer first! Okay, so maybe not suffer exactly…****Emily Woodmark- Another Emily ;) Common name, I suppose…I'm glad you like it! Hopefully I'll be able to fit in a surprise or two…****LaminaCourt****- I will keep it up, hehe. Glad you like it so far. I'm not a very funny person, lol, but I try! ****Raven-gal2002- =) I'll be updating again asap! ****Chickensoup3- It's nice to know you still like it! ****Zetta****- Lol, is the title that cheesy? Suppose it is, now that I think about it. But that isn't the point- you like the story! I'm so happy! ****Evillalmanotlamma****(****frogs- well hopefully this chapter gave you a little more about that…and hopefully you liked it! ****ToonedIn****- Lol, you make better jokes than I do =) Thanks again! ****Unshed Tears- Heh. I probably would too, come to think of it. But she'll probably be more tolerant as the story continues. ****Bella Black- Funny you should say that ;) You're stories are way better!! Update soon, by the way!**


	4. Trick Feelings

**A/N: A snow day! I could sing! But I won't…or you'll all run away screaming =) Anyway- sorry it took awhile- but here's chapter four!**

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Chapter 4- Trick Feelings

James snorted. He joined his other three friends as the crowded around the 'new guy'. Many of the girls fancied Luke, and many of the guys were disgusted by him. But none more than the Marauders.

            Luke was telling them some random story about what he had achieved in America, while running a black comb through his light hair for the hundredth time. 

            "I have _never seen a guy spent so much time in front of the mirror." Sirius whispered in amused amazement._

            "Maybe he isn't a guy." Remus snickered.

Luke turned around; tucking his comb into his robes, and gave them a grin. "I'm headed down for breakfast." He exited, obviously expecting them to follow.

            "_Honestly…" Peter and the rest stared after him._

"That man is in need of a reality check."

            James was the first to leave, almost tumbling down the stairs in his hurry. He stopped at the foot of the steps and glanced around the common room. Yes- there was Lily- with her friends. Glaring at him. He smiled. 

            Suddenly, Lily came flying his way, colliding into him. She looked furious; her green eyes flashed dangerously as she turned around and stuck a finger out at her friends. "You two are- are_ immature!"_

            "Oh come on, Lily," Jessica said loudly, "we aren't all that bad."

The red-head's mouth worked, but she simply glared at them before turning back to James, who was dazed, at the least. 

            "And _you- oh, damn it all- I'll deal with __you later." She narrowed her eyes and stomped out of the portrait hole._

            Sirius patted James on the back. "I wonder- just how does she mean to _deal with you?" he chuckled thoughtfully._

            Heather and Jessica came up to them. "Oh, Lily'll come around. You'll see."

"If we have any say in it- it'll be sooner than anyone thinks." Heather winked at him, and Jessica opened her mouth again-

            "Don't think I can't hear you!" Lily's voice floated over to them from the portrait hole. 

            Jessica rolled her light eyes and grinned at the Marauders. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^

            Lily was in a bad mood for the remainder of the day…which was, consequently, the whole day. Her friends, however, were in a jolly mood.

            "Lily, just give James a chance…you'll see. It'll all go fine."

"I don't see what you're worried about- I mean- come on, the poor guy is _embarrassed around you!"_

            "Any guy who can continue to chase after a girl even when she constantly rejects him obviously has an interest."

            Lily felt foolish, listening to them. But she had decided, a long time ago. She wasn't going to do this anymore.

            When she found the chance, the first thing she did was run to someplace quiet. She needed to think. "The only bloody place I can think of is the Heads room." She mumbled to herself, giving the password and dropping onto the couch inside. 

            She sighed, laying back and letting the warmth of the fire engulf her. Her thoughts drifted miserably, and came to the one thing she wanted to forget the most.

_Lily walked through the halls humming a tune to herself. She brushed a hand through her hair. "I want to look perfect for him today." She smiled and turned the corner. ___

_Chris had agreed to meet her in the empty room next to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. He had wanted to talk and she wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. But one thing was sure- she wanted him to think she looked beautiful. _

_Heather and Jessica had told her how pretty she looked when she walked out- and she had believed them. A boost in self-esteem never hurt, did it? Not unless you were already cocky…_

_She smiled again, stopping in the doorway. The lighting was dim, but she thought she could see Chris on the other side of the room. She came closer, expecting him to greet her with a hug, like usual. But no…he wasn't alone.___

_A girl giggled. "Oh Chris, don't."___

_Lily didn't normally stand up for herself, especially not like this, but it was too sudden and the realization of what was going on hit her too fast. "What the bloody hell is going on?"___

_ Chris and the mystery girl broke apart. "Lily!"___

_The girl looked between them haughtily. "Chris dear, what is this?"___

_"Nothing."__ He mumbled. "Damn it Lily, what're you doing here?"_

_"I was going to ask the same of you! Excuse me, but you invited me here!"_

_"I did no such- oh yeah." He rolled his eyes. _

_"Is that all I mean to you? Well- I can say more about you- you dirty, egotistical, cheating, lying, scum of-"_

_She was hit with a blow on her cheek, and stumbled backwards. Reaching a hand up to where he had hit her, she felt the hotness growing. "You didn't just do that." She said softly, staring into his dark eyes._

_ He hit her again is response- harder, this time. She felt herself in a daze, and vaguely heard the girl laughing. A shower of kicking and slapping met her body- she was barely aware. Her last sound had been another laugh from the girl and a cackle from Chris as they left her on the floor._

Lily wiped her eyes, realizing with embarrassment that she was crying. She hated remembering that. It was so clear, so vivid, and no matter how hard she tried to erase it, it stuck with her like glue. 

She had woken up after being beaten, of course, and rid herself of most of the bruises magically. She was too ashamed to tell anybody- not even her best friends. And they still didn't understand what had provoked her sudden hatred of everything to do with guys and dating. But they never asked her to explain, and she appreciated that more than she could say.

Lily suddenly heard a rustling behind her, and spun around, still sitting on the couch. She made another attempt to scrub her eyes; only making them redder. 

            James came closer, dropping a silvery robe onto the floor. She watched as he slowly sat down next to her, staring. He brushed a strand of auburn hair behind her ear and his lips curled upward softly.

            She looked away quickly, staring into the fire. His hand encircled her chin, and she could feel him move closer, but didn't look up. Carefully, he moved her head back towards him. She looked down at the couch, but he moved it up again. 

            "I'm sick of waiting for you to tell me its okay." He said, brushing her hair out of her face as he kissed her. Her lips were unmoving at first, but then came to life under the pressure from his. He moved one hand down from her face, meeting her hip and pulling her closer.

            She pushed away silently, softly, and gave him one last glance before turning around. She made a move for the door, but stopped before it. She didn't look back. James sighed and walked over to her, talking to her behind her back.

            "Lily, it's okay. I don't know what you're upset about…but if you tell me, maybe I could help."

            She let out a long, exaggerated breath, gathering up her energy. "I hate you. And I'll never tell you anything." _I hate myself even more for that...scene. She thought to herself as she left him standing there, completely confused._

            "She must not be too upset…if she still has the will to insult me." He grinned to himself, then felt silly…_and now I'm laughing at my own jokes._

            Suddenly, Lily tumbled back through the entrance, glancing heatedly at him. She pulled him into a kiss. He responded, but she pulled away, looking up at him through watery green eyes. "That will never happen again." She said firmly, turning around and exiting.

            James' eyes were wide, and he was past confused, this time; he was mystified. 

_ ^^^^^^^^^^^^_

"Lily? Are you alright?" Heather asked, sitting down next to her friend. 

"We're worried about you." Jessica said simply. "You haven't been yourself lately."

Lily wanted to yell at them, let them know that they didn't know _herself , that nobody did. But she wasn't that cruel…not to her friends, who were obviously only trying to help. "Nope." She tried to say cheerfully. "Nothing's wrong."_

            Heather raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"I definitely think something fun is in order."

            "I quite agree, Jes."

Lily looked between the two of them, bewildered. "You sound as if you're plotting my demise." 

            "Frightened?"

Lily shook her head in disbelief. "Sometimes you two are just too…weird…for me."

            Heather frowned. Before she could respond, the door burst open. Luke Whitemark entered, grinning in his own cute way. Lily's friends smiled inwardly, while she scowled outwardly. He had eyes only for her; he didn't even appear to notice the other two girls in the room.

            "Luke- how _many times do I have to tell you-"_

"Someone once told me that the best, and possibly the only way, to get the girl you want, is through perseverance."

Lily rolled her eyes, preparing herself for another long speech. Heather and Jessica only nudged her.  Suddenly, an idea occurred to her. She hated guys, true. _But I hate James Potter above all. And what will bother him, will make me happy…She sprang up from the bed, knowing that wherever she went, Luke would follow hopelessly. This time, Heather and Jessica followed as well, staring at her with assorted odd expressions._

She made her way slowly down to the common room. Her eyes scanned over the students, looking for one in particular. There he was- in the corner. She walked over, stopping near him, but not so close that it would look completely on purpose. She waited awhile while Luke continued speaking. She wasn't really listening, but glanced out of the corner of her eyes to make sure that the Marauders were. Jessica and Heather had taken seats next to her.

Suddenly, Lily turned back to Luke and gave him a sweet smile. "Alright." She said.

He blinked. "A-alright?" he looked puzzled. "Alright what?"

            "Alright this." She looped a hand around his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers. She didn't pay any mind at all to the kiss, but watched again out of the corner of her eyes, and was pleased to see James watching. Not to mention everyone else.

            She pulled away. Luke grinned. "That was…amazing, Lily. Do it again?"

Lily scrunched her face up. "Er- maybe another time." She saw James relax a little. "Come to think of it, Luke, there'll be plenty of other times, you know? If we're going out…"

            "Oh, I'm so happy!" Luke scampered off, up the stairs. Lily blinked in surprise, and then inwardly patted herself on the back. _Not a bad actress….not bad at all. She glanced around. James looked more astounded then hurt, but it was all the same to her. His friends were simply staring with their mouths open like lumps. Heather and Jessica looked as if they had never seen her before. Lily grinned at them and walked slowly back up the stairs to her dorm._

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**A/N: Like it? Hate it? Please let me know! Meanwhile, I'm off to enjoy the lovely snow…**

**Zetta****- Lol, I only realized a few years ago that it was spelled bologna- I mean- what sense does that make? Oh well…lol, thank you for reviewing again! ****Punkkittin01- Thanks again! And for reviewing some of my other stories ;) ****Evillalmanotlamma****(****frogs- I must ask- is there a significance to your penname? =) just wondering- and thank you for another review. ****Gooey Gooey Coca Beans- I'm glad you don't find them cliché- I try to stay away from that…doesn't always work out though. Have you updated your story? I'll have to check…you'd better expect me. ****Chickensoup3- Thanks again!! Hope this chapter agreed with you! ****Dropped Rose- Glad you like it so far- hope you continue to, and of course, thank you. ****TheYellowSubmarine****- Lol- you aren't the only obvious person- trust me. I do believe you have fixed your html issue ;) ****LaminaCourt****- Heh, feel glad that you aren't in school anymore…there are fun points, but you know how it is. Thanks! ****Little Rogue- I'm glad you reviewed for me, then! I hope you enjoyed this chappie too. ****Britz****- Wow- you are always nice enough to leave me a long review! Oh- and Hush Day- yes, it was a day at my school before homecoming- that was the prize- homecoming tickets. And I _definitely appreciate the reviews/comments- who doesn't? =)_**


	5. Twists and Turns

Chapter 5- Twists and Turns

Heather shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine." She replied in answer to Jessica's question. Regarding Lily, of course. 

            Heather _supposed that this was still the Lily Evans who she had been friends with all these years. Then again, it had been a long time since Lily had gone out with any guy. It was some sort of progress, though it had gone in a totally different direction than they had hoped. _

            "What I don't understand is, why Luke? Of all the- Oh, hello Lily." Jessica beamed a smile at their friend, who looked anything but calm.

            She plopped down into the seat next to them (in the common room), strands of auburn hair sticking out in all directions as if she had been running her hands through them in exasperation. 

            "Anything new?" Heather beamed, ignoring her obviously foul mood.

"_Anything new_? I'll tell you what's new!" Lily spat out hurriedly. "I am going to_ kill that damn blond-haired idiot who calls himself my boyfriend! How long's it been? Two days? A week? Urgh! I'll __tell you what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna-" She cut off abruptly, amid the others' raised eyebrows and amused grins. Her emerald eyes trailed over to the steps leading up to the dormitories, where the Marauders had just appeared. Lily clamped her mouth shut and stared pointedly at the floor._

            "_Oh!" Heather burst out, but quietly, directed at both of her friends. "It was so obvious, Jessica! Why didn't we know?"_

            "What? What?" Jessica swiveled her head in all directions. "I'm missing something, unless you're having another one of those psychopathic moments. Is your grandmother here?"

            Heather's forehead creased and she stared at Jessica; a look that plainly said, "You're out of your mind." She smiled then, her dark eyes scanning Lily's face rapidly. "As I was saying- we've got you all figured out now, Lils. Do you think you can hide it from us that easily?"

            Lily was still angry. She threw her hands up in the air animatedly. "_What?" _

"The only reason you're going out with Luke is to make James Potter jealous! So you _do_ like him!"

            The red-head crossed her arms defiantly. "I don't know what you're talking about, and neither do you, clearly. I'm even more fed up with that freak than I am with Luke. However do you come to these conclusions? I-" She was losing speed with her words, however, and by the end, simply trailed off. Her friends' beaming smiles and eagerness only maddened her further. "This is just-just preposterous!" She got up and left the room, mumbling, heading up to their dorm, no doubt.

            Heather bit her lip to keep from laughing and turned to Jessica. "Now that we know exactly what's going on-"

            "-we're going to have some fun with it."

"Exactly. But how? James, it seems, is easily embarrassed. And Lily, well, is as hard-headed as they come…"

            "Brilliant!" Jessica muttered to herself. "You know Lily- we tell her one thing and she'll think the other, however much of a friend she is. All we have to do is convince her that James is a fool and she'll be more likely to submit…"

            "I don't think it will take much convincing." Heather mentioned, watching James, who was staring at the place where Lily had disappeared minutes before. "But it will help."

@-------------------@

            "Haha. You're so _funny_." Lily grunted sarcastically, picking mashed potatoes off of her face. Sirius only chuckled. James was purposely avoiding the whole incident, and Lily's friends were sitting off to the side, in deep discussion. Lily sighed, watching her friends and beginning to worry. The two of them plotting could only mean…something bad for her. She snapped her head around swiftly after feeling a hand on her waist.   
            "Luke, I-"

The blonde-haired boy plopped down into the empty seat next to her and happily wrapped his arm around her. "Shh. I know you're happy to see me; we all are, of course. But there's no need to tell everyone."

            Lily grumbled something under her breath. But with a quick, almost not there, glance at James, she shut up and allowed the scene to unfold. Luke gave her a kiss on the cheek and a red rose appeared almost out of nowhere, until he stuck it under her nose, so that she was almost choking. "Erm-ugh." She tried not to sneeze, and scream, at the same time. "Thank you." She accepted the rose with a planned, sweet smile that almost seemed too unlike her. After a moments silence, with Luke staring uncomfortably at her, she cleared her throat and mentioned carefully, "Luke, dear. I left a few of my books in my dorm. Would you mind-"

            "I'll be right back!" he left speedily and she almost folded her hands and thanked God, holding back an annoyed sigh all the same, before she reminded herself of James- no- of the other_ people_ in the Great Hall. Certainly not James- she couldn't care less about him. Careful to mask her real emotions, she left the Hall slowly, telling herself that once she was in the confines of privacy, she could yell as much as she wanted. The problem was finding that privacy.

            Outside, she decided. _I'll go for a stroll along the lake._ Before she got far, though, her two friends caught up to her and walked apace on either side. She gritted her teeth and hoped for the best.

            "How are you two today? We haven't talked much, besides, of course, me yelling at you this morning for waking me up." Lily gave a small smile.

            "Oh, cut the crap." Jessica sent her a sideways grin. "You don't need to act around your friends. You're forgetting yourself."

            "I am not." She mumbled.

"Then why the pleasant attitude? I mean, you aren't mean to us ever, but you aren't the brightest person around, friend."

            She grimaced. "Fine. What are you guys following me for?"

"We_ are_ your friends. We have that right. I thought." Heather stated.

            Lily exhaled deeply. "I'm sorry. I haven't been a very nice friend."

"You never were." Jessica replied simply, and then laughed when she saw the red-head's stricken expression. "I'm just kidding."   

            "And I'm just annoyed today. This past week has been hell."

"I wonder why." A hint of sarcasm from Heather was not unusual. 

            "You did it to yourself." Jessica said. "If you'd only give in, who know's why you don't, then Jam-" Heather nudged her hard in the side. "Ow-Oh." They shared a look, and Lily stopped, looking between them.

            They were now next to the lake, the Saturday sun casting reflections of the castle into the water. Sighing once again, Lily dropped down into the grass, supporting herself on her elbows. "I'm not stupid you know."

            "No. Just very stubborn."

Lily turned to look at them as they sat down beside her. She scowled. "So? And what about it?" she asked, laying one arm across her stomach.

            "Nothing." Jessica replied, quickly.

The two of them (Heather and Jessica) shared another glance, and then Heather said, "You know, I'm actually glad that you didn't decide to go out with James."

            Lily turned to face her and her expression turned red, or pink, or some related shade. "I was never considering it!"

            "Well- I'm glad then."

There was silence for awhile, with Lily making small, frequent shifts in her position, while Heather and Jessica fooled with their robes and watched her at the same time.

            "Why do you say that?" the red-head asked, after a time, unable to keep it inside any longer.

            Jessica bit back a knowing smile. "Well- he's a jerk."  
"Mm. Full-fledged." Heather agreed.

            Lily gaped. "What?"

"Yep. I was just too blind to see it before. But I do now, and I'm glad you stayed away."

            "Oh." She replied, and then was silent. She stared out into the lake, apparently deep in thought over something. Then she smiled abruptly. "Well- I have a few essays to get done and I don't want to spend my whole weekend doing them. I'll meet back up with you guys in the common room or something later. Okay?"

            "Sure. Of course." They replied in unison. Lily had already started to jog back up to the castle, though, and didn't notice them share smiles and a quick high-five.

@-------------------@

            Not really knowing what possessed her to do so, Lily decided to work on her essays in the Heads room. She slung her bag full of books, parchment, and quills over her shoulder casually and made her way over. She had done a superb job of avoiding Luke so far; in fact, she hadn't seen him since breakfast.

            It wasn't until she was inside of the Heads room, staring at the fire, that she realized what a mistake it was to come here. What was she thinking? She wasn't the only one with access to this place…But apparently, he had already figured that one out.

            James stood from his spot at a desk on the side of the room and stared at her. "Glad you came." He said simply, approaching her. "Luke has been stumbling around the whole school in search of you."

            "Well good. Something to keep him away from the mir-" she stopped, remembering that it was James she was talking with. She fell silent.

            After a pause, he inquired quietly. "Lily, why are you doing this to me?"

"Doing what?" she attempted at innocence, and began to inspect her nails.

            He grumbled something too low for her to hear, and frankly, she wasn't sure she wanted to. She sent him a scowl before walking over to the couch and dropping down into it, setting her bag beside her and staring into the fire.

            She felt James sit down beside her, after a fashion, and turn towards her. She pointedly ignored his glance.

            "Come on, you can at least look at me."

"No!" she huffed.

            He let out a long breath and she felt the hotness on her cheek. He was doing it on purpose. Damn him.

            "Look James." She said, still staring into the fire. "You're like a stalker. And I don't much like stalkers. My friends also told me that-"

            "Oh, and since when do you listen to other people?"  
She paused, unknowing of her next move. "You don't know me!" Was the best reply she had.

            "I think I know you better than even you do."

She shrugged uncomfortably and decided to ignore his last comment. "No good comes out of arguing." She mumbled, not really meaning for him to hear it.

            But he did. "I can't argue with that."

She felt him lean closer, and thoughts ran through her mind like lightning. She could scoot away, but that might prove one or another of his darn points. But if she stayed, well, she knew herself to give in too easily upon physical contact. She'd rather stay with arguing. It was no good once he kissed her. And yet, by the time she decided to pull away, no matter how much he ridiculed her for it, it was already too late. She was too weak, then. And weakness was something Lily Evans hated more than anything else. Her past proved to her that it was no way to live.

            James kissed her lightly just below her cheekbone. Lily turned to yell at him, but instead found his lips on hers. She pushed him off roughly. He came back. "This is what it takes with you, isn't it? A fight?"

       She mumbled something against his mouth, but he hardly cared what it was, and she didn't seem to want to repeat herself anymore. Finally, they pulled away. She grabbed her bag, containing her books, and rose from the couch. So did James. 

"I-I should go. I'll just be-"

James grabbed her arm and she turned slowly, to see him grinning behind her. "Shall I give you one for the road?"

       "You're a corny bastard, aren't you?" she twisted her arm out of his grip.

"Hey." he shrugged. "It works."

       "Well not with me. Sorry to disappoint."

"Hardly." he mumbled.

       She made another move to leave, making it halfway across the room, but he stepped between her and the door. "You are the most stubborn person I have ever known." he said, looking at her seriously.

       She smiled sarcastically. "And proud of it."

"Why won't you just give me a chance?"

       "Because I don't trust you. It's too easy."

"Easy? You call this easy?" he let out an annoyed breath and grunted. "Fine. At least admit that you need me."

       She snorted humorously. "For what?"

"You wouldn't have come back here unless you expected to meet me." he explained.

       "Yeah, right." she said softly. "Believe me, you're nothing more to me than a way to escape reality. You aren't real. And you never will be."

       He let go of her arm, where he had been holding it. Then he suddenly seemed pleased with himself. "Well then, you need me to be unreal."

       She threw her hands up in the air. "Oh! Of all the-" he cut her off abruptly, kissing her lightly. He pulled away, but she was leaning forward.

       "Proof." he shrugged.

She shook her head and stared at him. "No. It's just instinct."

       "If that's what you want to think, nobody's stopping you."

"Damn right."

       He smiled again, only making her angrier with his insistence. "Well then. I guess you really are into Luke." he said lightly. "You'll be together a long while, I suppose." he shrugged and moved around her towards the door. "Oh well." 

       She opened her mouth in confusion, following him out of the Head Rooms, until she spotted Luke jogging down the hallway towards them.

       "You found her for me! Thanks, James!" Luke huffed, shoving Lily's books at her. "Where have you been? I've been looking for ages!" Her mouth worked silently, searching for some way to set everything straight. _You dug this hole. She reminded herself. _And now you're digging deeper. __

      James looked between them, almost with glee, and she felt a sudden compulsion to slap him and demand what he meant of all this. But he only winked at her and started down the corridor. She stared after him, a bit confused, but all in all knowing exactly what he was trying to do. And it only aggravated her further.

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**A/N: Hopefully I'm not losing your interest. I got more feedback for last chapter! Thanks a lot!!**

**Kitty- **Do you really like it that much? It makes me so happy! Yes, of course, I'll keep writing. And as for Lily coming to her senses, well, we'll see…**Raven-gal2002- Lol, I'm so glad you're sticking by the story. Hope this chapter was alright for you ;) **Zetta******- Lol, mush, huh? It was never a strong point of mine, but I try. Thanks again! ****(anon)- Thanks! So glad you like Lily and James; I do too- obviously- lol. **goodmorning****(****iluvfrogs******);):);(:P- A new name =) Thanks for continuing to review! It's much appreciated, believe me. ****Lamina Court- Lol, I agree. Lily is a little short of sane. But who cares, anyway? So am I! Thanks for another review, as always. **Starblaze******- Yep, I stopped. And started again. You updated your story, didn't you? I need to read the updates ;) ****Little Rogue- Thanks! So glad you liked it! **Snow White- **Why? Because Luke is retarded! Yes, and not worth the time. Although he was necessary for the plot, so I'll give him that. Lol, thanks a bunch. ****AnotherKoolKitty**- **Yeah, I probably should go for a change, shouldn't I? Oh well, I will eventually. I'm too tired to think of anything good ;) So it probably won't be until summer, lol. **Lauren- **Of course I'll send you an email! Thanks for leaving a review for me! ****Chickensoup3- Thanks? I'm confused- I'm supposed to be the one thanking you =) **(anon)-** Thank you for such nice comments! I hope you continue to enjoy the story! **Caz******- Happy to hear that you think so! **Golden.Slumbers******- I like the new name! Hmm- I did rhyme- didn't I? I'm so horrible at poetry…Lol, nope, don't think the HTML works in reviews. And don't thank me, I didn't solve anything- I'm pretty hopeless at anything like that. Thanks again for reviewing!! **Forbidden- **I'm not usually funny, so thanks! ****Mei** Queen- **Thanks a bunch, again! I hope this chapter was agreeable for you, lol. **Nauzzo******- You like it that much? Thank you! **JadeAngelou******- Lol, thanks so much. I'd say more, but this is getting entirely too long, if I do say so. **Louisa Potter- **Brilliant, you say? That's very nice of you. **dREaM****** cHicK- Lol, I'm not sure how she can, but she does. Yes, and Luke is dumb. Thanks for your multiple reviews- this fic and others!**


	6. Wandering Mouths

Chapter 6- Wandering Mouths

            Lily was upset. Unsettled, was a better word for it. She tapped her quill against her thigh repetitiously, not noticing that she did so. Professor Towerns didn't seem to realize that nobody cared what he was going on about. From the looks of it, the class was even more boring than usual. Heather was making shapes with her hands, smiling to herself. Jessica was playing with the end of her ponytail and frowning. Lily was sitting there observing everything…or about everything. One thing was, more often than not, her object of observance. Black, pointy and sporadic ends. She thought of every vocabulary word that would go along with it. Maybe it was soft too...abruptly, she realized that she was staring at the back of James' head, and gave a little jump in her seat.

            Jessica looked her way, raising an eyebrow. Lily sniffed and ignored her; her friends had been something less than helpful lately. They seemed rather amused by her problems. Lily didn't find it very amusing, though. She shook her head, cleared her thoughts, and decided to listen to the end of the lecture, for once.

            Professor Towerns was saying, "Aurors have to be on pliable schedules. They are called on when needed, you see." When had Defense Against the Dark Arts become so pointless? "They must be brave, ready for anything. And-"

            "They're sexy." Jessica said, staring at her desk. She looked up abruptly, seeming to realize that she had said it aloud, and not softly. She covered her mouth with a hand, her eyes widening. Lily and Heather looked at each other, surprised, and began to snicker. The Professor had stopped talking. Everyone turned around, after a moment, to stare at Jessica, laughing slowly. Jessica appeared bewildered, but dropped her hand and spun around to proceed to laugh at the girl behind her, who looked helpless.

            "Oh, give it up." Lily poked her tom-boyish friend in the side. "Everyone knows it was you." 

            At this, Jessica shrugged and chuckled to herself. "Well I had to try." She mumbled. "Not everyday my thoughts come out to greet the world."

            "Thank God." Heather muttered.  
Jessica gave her a pointed glare, and then looked away, realizing that everyone had lost interest in the trio and Professor Towerns had resumed his monotonous hell. 

@-------------------@

            It was funny. Only when she was alone was Lily able to clear her head and realize what a mess she had made of everything. Because it was her fault, of course. It was always her fault. 

            There was something there, hovering in the back of her mind, that involved James. She resolved to keep it there, until some other problems were solved. She finally realized her lack of sense since they had come back for their last year at the school. But that, well, it didn't mean that she was going to do something about it. Not just yet. 

            "Why do people act?" she mumbled to her bedpost. That's what she'd been doing, and without even realizing it. Why couldn't everyone be themselves, all the time? Why was she forced to hide her emotions? Why weren't all other people forced to do the same? Why…

            She knew why, in the back of her mind someplace. She knew that it was pretty much her fault that she was the way she was. It had something to do with Chris. But that was her fault anyway; there had to be some reason he had acted that way. It was her, one way or another. It was her fault. She sighed, feeling as if there was no end to this. 

            The door burst open, and in came the last person she wanted to see. "Hello dear!" Luke exclaimed, plopping himself down next to her on the bed. "What's wrong?" he inquired suddenly, sensing her mood. "Is there something I can do? Can I help?"

            Lily stared up at his head and wondered vaguely what could be in it. Certainly not a brain. Luke mistook her stare for something different. "Ah, yes." He grinned, smoothing his hair down. "I got a haircut."

            Lily would have laughed, if only it were someone else who had to put up with this, and she was merely a bystander. It might have been amusing. Suddenly, the biggest why question of all popped into her mind: Why, in the name of something horrible, was she still with Luke? She grinned abruptly. 

            Maybe she had made a mess of things, but a mess could always be cleaned up. The first step of project 'clean-up' brought on a surge of happiness. "Luke, we need to talk."

            Luke's forehead scrunched up slightly, and he grabbed both of her hands in his, putting on his 'sympathetic' face. "About what? Do you have a problem you need help with? What is it?"   
            She swatted his hands away quickly. _Oh Lord. _"No- it's just. Well, I don't think this is working out."

"What is?"

            Lily almost rolled her eyes. Almost. "Our relationship." She replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and it just might have been.

            "Oh." He said simply. He stared into his lap for a long time. "There's another guy, isn't there?"  
            Lily didn't hear at first. "I know this is hard for you, but- _What_?"

"I knew it! Someone's stolen you!"

            "No! Nothing like that at all!" she took a deep breath, reminding herself that she should be gentle with the less fortunate. "I just- need some time to be along. A long time." She added, making sure he didn't get any bad ideas.            

            But Luke was no longer listening to her. He had jumped up from her bed and was pacing the room, muttering to himself. It was rather scary. "Luke?" Lily asked quickly.

            "I'll find the bastard." He was saying.  
"Luke! I told you-"No, that wouldn't do. He had already left the room. She heard one more strip of mutterings coming from down the hall before it trailed off, "And when I do…"

            "Oh God." Lily put a hand to her forehead and fell back on her bed.

@-------------------@

            "I can't believe you finally did it!" Heather exclaimed. "I'm so happy!"

"That idiot was getting on even my nerves. I don't know how you took it, Lils….Lily?"

            James was ignoring her. Lily glared at his back. He did it on purpose. Ever since that night when he had completely confused her at first by saying he wished her the best with Luke…no matter- why did she care? She considered it. _Well, because I want to apologize. Yes, that would be it. She felt bad, for having been so moody around him all the time. She wanted nothing else though, she just meant to apologize. Abruptly, she snapped back into reality, realized that Jessica was waving a hand in front of her eyes and pushed it aside, annoyed. "What's that all about?"_

            "Er- you wouldn't answer me. I was just making sure you hadn't fainted standing up or something." Jessica said. Lily turned to Heather. She shrugged.

            Lily chewed her lip. "Um, what were you saying?"

Her friends exchanged a look and laughed as if they had just heard the funniest thing in the world. Lily rolled her eyes and resumed walking. "I don't understand you two sometimes."  
            They caught up to her, on either side. "You aren't supposed to."

"Whatever that means, I'm going to forget you said it."

            They walked into Transfiguration; Professor McGonagall surveyed them over her glasses and leaned back over her book sharply. For some reason, McGonagall always made them feel a bit nervous, and it was uncanny.

            Lily sighed and dropped her bag onto the desk, practically throwing herself into her chair. No matter how much she tried to restrain, her glance always seemed to travel over to James. She was sure her friends noticed, and they would have questioned her, had it not been for McGonagall's interruption. 

            "Okay!" she snapped her book shut loudly, causing everyone to fall silent. "Today we are going to take notes on transfiguring mice into frogs. Tomorrow, we'll practice it and-"

            Lily's thoughts immediately took a different turn. A few minutes later, a piece of parchment landed in her lap. 

_Lils-_

_Might I inquire at the source of your interest regarding James Potter?_

- _Jes_

Lily smiled despite herself and glanced over at her friend, who winked. She grabbed her quill and nibbled at the end before replying,

_Jessica-_

_I might say the same about your new obsession with sexy aurors (how would you know?). But anyway, I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm just really bored, as you should be too._

_-Lily_

_Lily-_

_Don't play stupid with me. I've known you too long, you stubborn little red-head. Just admit that you're into him and I'll leave you alone._

_-J_

It took Lily awhile to respond to that one; she was internally debating what she should let Jessica in on. Her friends were right, though. She couldn't hide everything from them, and she wasn't sure why she tried anyway. They were there to help her, not criticize. Although the sly comments were quite unnecessary…

_Jessica-_

_I don't know what to tell you. And I'm being honest. I'm confused. Maybe tonight, I'll tell you everything I'm thinking. But I'm just too mixed up, and it would take too long to write. I promise, you can grill me later and I'll let you this time.  
-Lily =/_

_Lily-_

_Don't act like I'm going to do something horrible. You're paranoid, I swear. Whatever, it's about time you open up to your dear friends here. I'm going to stick these notes under Heather's nose after you read this…she's fallen asleep and drooling again, if you haven't noticed yet…_

_-Jessica_

Lily sniggered and glanced over at their other friend, who was hanging half off her chair in what looked like a very uncomfortable sleeping position. It was a wonder they had ever found classes slightly enjoying back in their first few years.

@-------------------@

            At the end of transfiguration, she caught Jessica glancing at her greedily and decided that she simply wasn't in the mood for all the questions now. Her mind was too tired to relate anything. Grabbing her books, she told the two of them quickly, 

            "I'm heading to the library, to get a head start on the Charms homework. I'll catch up with you later."

            This caused Jessica to wrinkle up her nose and mutter something that sounded an awful lot like, 'shaking me off'. Heather, however, couldn't have been more eager to agree. She wouldn't have gone to the library unless forced by some horrible power.

            "Right. See you then." Lily said, giving a wave and leaving the room with a sigh.

Once in the library, she dropped her bag onto a table near the back and wondered if she really wanted to do the Charms essay just yet. "Well of course not, you idiot." she whispered to herself. She decided to do it anyway…anything rather than go to talk to Heather.

            Walking to the back shelf, she was met with a rather unexpected and unpleasant surprise. "James Potter! What are you doing here?" she demanded, glaring at him. 

            He dropped his hands to his sides and tilted his head at her. "What was that? I couldn't quite hear you…"

            She turned red and lowered her voice, anger flaring up inside of her. "What sort of stunt are you trying to pull? Why are you doing this to me?"

            "Doing what?" James asked, inspecting his hands.

Lily shook her head, suddenly being hit with a feeling of déjà vu. "You know perfectly well. Ignoring me and some such."

            He shrugged, looking up at her with his piercing dark eyes. "Why shouldn't I? You ignore me."

She opened her mouth, and then closed it again, realizing that he was all too right. She hated being wrong. Stamping her foot, words suddenly seemed to stream out of her without control. "I just- I wanted to apologize. I've been horrible to you. And I want you to know why too." _No I don't! What the hell? "You scared me. I didn't know, I still don't know, what's happening. I was actually happy around you- a guy- after I had despised them for so long. I should have hated you! It confused me. And then- and then you kissed me…I didn't know how you felt about it and I wasn't going to say anything. I realized again how much I hated guys, and I forbid myself to even think about it anymore. But James- I felt something. I don't know what it is, I don't even care at the moment. I just, I just…I just need it."_

            James stared at her, his dark chocolate eyes wide and dumbfounded. Suddenly, her trance of mind ended. She stumbled backward, clamped a hand to her mouth, blinked, and realized what she had just said. She rushed from the library in a fury.

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**A/N: I'm so sorry! I take forever to do anything anymore…I'm just so overloaded with school and all, by the time I actually have a few hours to sit down and write, I'm exhausted and decide to go to sleep instead. I've been sick too…everyone's sick =( Enough of that- I'm sorry I couldn't make this chapter longer! I'd promise you a longer one next time, but those of you who have been reading my stories know as well as I do that it never seems to happen =)**

**Thank you guys so much! **

**Blacke- **I'm glad you think it's a little different. I'm sick of all the same stories…even if I do find myself reading them, lol. **Lamina Court- Don't they? I agree. I've started leaving more reviews, because they seem to make my day. I know- I'm so happy book 5 is finally coming out! And about 4 months now! ****Vixen- Really? You thought that well of this story? Well let me tell you, you put me in a good mood for the rest of the day! Thanks a bunch, hope you keep reading. ****Lexygirl0- Lol, if that ending was bad, this one was worse…but thank you, of course. **Me- **I will =) Thanks **Emily Woodmark- **I could say the same for your story! You need to update! But thanks, as usual, for reviewing. **Jimbiny Lupin-Wood- **Glad to hear it! Ty! **Golden.Slumbers- **Why on earth do I keep putting off reading your stories? I'm such a lazy bum…anyway, lol, I'm glad you agree that James is corny. But then, don't we all wish for a James? Sigh, why can't real life be like fanfiction? ****Lucky_719- You weren't included? That must have been because you didn't fill it out…either that or, my fault! So sorry! But believe me, it's always appreciated. And Lily's stubborn because she's….Lily =) ****JadeAngelou- I'm so happy to hear people say they like it. And here I was thinking I was just crazy…oh well, probably am. **ChickenSoup3- **Lol, poor loser. Yep, that's James. Thanks again! ****Little Rogue- Isn't he though? It's sort of scary…then again, I made him up, which is much scarier…lol, thanks! ****Caz- Heh, I think she's blind. Hell, I don't even know and I'm writing it. Oh well, I thank you for leaving another review. **Dathrian Princess- **Yeah, tell me about it. If I had a guy that fixed on me, you'd bet I wouldn't turn him away. Lol, but that's another matter altogether…****Alexz- Well, not soon, but I did write more! That counts for something, I hope. ;) **Lover of the Dragon- **Ha! Good- someone who sides with Lily! Secretly, I have no idea whose side I'm on. Guess I shouldn't be siding anyway…thanks for reviewing! ****KeeperOfTheMoon- Lol, yes, in addition to being a corny bastard, he's also a cunning…I don't know what word to fill in the blank. **Nauzzo- **Hope you liked this chappie too…I don't have the time to make sure it's even worth posting… ****Dara finVidya- Of course there'll be more! I can't abandon something when people are kind enough to tell me they like it =) **

**If I missed anyone, I'm very sorry! I was hoping you'd review again for me, if you please. It seems I need some ego boosting, lol. Or is that the right phrase? Oh well, everyone knows what reviews do to people! It's that nice, happy and warm feeling you have when you find a mailbox full of them…What I'm meaning to say, before you all think I'm crazy, is the more reviews, the faster I update! Not that I plan it that way, really, it just happens… =)**


	7. Smacking Filch and Hiding

Chapter 7- Smacking Filch and Hiding

            All four Marauders somehow managed to stuff themselves under James' invisibility cloak, and were presently slinking down the corridor, silly grins plastered onto their faces. Up ahead was a tall, lanky figure in star-speckled and planet-embroidered pajamas. The obvious question was: what on earth were they doing up in the middle of the night, following the Astronomy teacher, Professor Aster, around? As usual, they themselves didn't precisely know the answer.

            The old man was sleepwalking again, and had always been rather amusing when he did so. Mumbling things about the movement of the planets and 'those damn students', he failed to notice the sniggers that trailed him; and despite the fact that his eyes were shut, he knew his way around perfectly.

            Remus had always thought that sleepwalking was a bit strange. How could someone who was in another state of mind suddenly jump out of bed and decide subconsciously to go for a walk? No matter, he tried to shove his thoughts away and concentrate on the amusing situation at hand.

            Sirius wondered how a man could wear such pajamas and still call himself a man. It was embarrassing to his gender! Who sold such attire, anyway? Although it did look awfully comfortable, footies and all. Perhaps he would check for some in Hogsmeade. After all, he could always wear them when he was all alone at home, the alone time that he reserved to …well, nevermind.

            Peter was casting glances around him, hoping that nobody could hear or see them. McGonagall had caught them once before…and he still thought about it. Maybe he should mention to his friends that they were being too loud. But no, they would think he was a coward. _Was he a coward? What a perfectly dreadful situation._

            James blew out his cheeks as he thought about…stuff. Wait, no- he wasn't thinking. He was merely _considering. Yes, that would be it. He was considering what he had been told by- some people…and what it meant to him. He often didn't get very far in his supposed revelations, however, before he lost track of where his mind was, or he was interrupted by Sirius._

            "James," the jocose, dark-haired boy whispered eagerly, "have I told you about what that Hufflepuff girl did today to Moony?"

            "Er-no." messy-haired James replied, sneaking a quick glance at Professor Aster in front of them, still oblivious.

            Sirius stifled a laugh. "Well, she came past the table at dinner- where were you, by the way?"

            "Um- doing homework I forgot about."

Sirius gave him an unbelieving, 'I'll ask again later', sort of stare. "Whatever. She was coming past the table, and all of a sudden latched herself onto our poor werewolf friend in a rather tight hug, I must say-"

            "Padfoot." James hissed, "Stop being so loud." The boy had been getting to what he felt was the most interesting part of the story, and apparently this story couldn't be told in a soft tone. 

            Professor Aster mumbled something that sounded like, "Classes, always noisy."

Sirius shook his head and turned back to James, eyes gleaming with contained mirth, "As I was saying, his eyes buggered out when she hugged him, and he threw his hands back, just like-"

            _Smack_. Sirius, in his imitation of their friend, had somehow managed to hit something with his absurdly waving arms. A something named Argus Filch. The four of them spun around upon hearing a groan of complaint behind them that sounded awfully familiar…Filch was looking around, rubbing a red nose, with an eyebrow raised in suspicion.

            The Marauders stood rooted to the ground wonderingly. Deep down in their minds, they realized that they should be running, but their brains didn't will it so. Filch reached an arm out and upon feeling the silky material of James' invisibility cloak, yanked. It slid off easily, exposing the faces of four very surprised boys- one thoughtful, one guilty, one terrified, and the other undecided. Before Filch could yell, and before they could splutter out excuses, it seemed that Professor Aster had noticed the slight commotion and come over for a shut-eyed investigation.

            You would have thought he had woken up, but no, Aster was still sleepwalking. He grabbed both of Filch's shoulders in either hand hastily, and exclaimed, "For the love of God!", as he began to violently shake the caretaker with unsteady hands. 

            The boys had no time to laugh. They grabbed the cloak and rushed down the corridor, in hopes that their professor, complete with footie pajamas, would unknowingly hold Filch off.

            After a bit of a marathon, they launched themselves into the Gryffindor common room, panting uncontrollably. 

            "Well- that – was fun." Sirius sputtered in between breaths.

Moony clutched his stomach. "Say what you will, Padfoot, but I entreat you not to drag me on another expedition like that for say, one week."

            "Entreat? What d'you mean entreat? Geez, Moony, whatever shall I do with you?"

The young werewolf rolled his eyes and looked to James and Peter for assistance. But Peter was too busy in an attempt to recover to notice, and James- he was too busy being James.

@~~~~~~~~~~~~~~@

            Why did she have to open her mouth? Was there some way she could tape it shut permanently? 

       Lily was past the "oh my god!" stage. She was now head-long into the stage after: insulting oneself and others. She grumbled something inaudibly and tried to sink deeper into her bed. How long could she stay in this bed? Forever, if that meant avoiding James. That idea, though, was forcefully discarded when Jessica and Heather entered the room. Lily wasn't sure where they had been and what they'd been doing, but she didn't think she wanted to know. 

            Jessica's eyes flickered when she saw the red-head spread out on her bed; one hand's fingers weaved into her hair and tugging at the strands. 

            "Yes!" she jumped onto the end of Lily's bed, causing her to bounce slightly and grumble something else. "Hey- you promised me that you'd tell me everything."

            "Oh of course I did." Lily replied, sarcastically agreeable. She added quickly, in a quite different tone, "but that was over 24 hours ago. Can you possibly expect me to keep promises for that long?" Actually, she was surprised she had avoided them for this long.

            Jessica was scratching her head in slight confusion, but Heather only seated herself on the other end of Lily's bed and gave her an exasperated look. "I don't know what you're trying to do _now, but we want to know the gossip."_

            "Dear God." Lily said to the ceiling. "I pray she didn't just say gossip."

"What? Just because you don't like the word, doesn't mean you have to be snide."

            "Snide? I didn't realize I was being _snide_."

"Come off it." Jessica jumped in again. "Why won't you just tell us?"

            "Because there's nothing to tell!" Lily practically yelled at them, rolling over onto her side, her head leaning into one of her palms, flat against the pillow.

            Her two friends watched her closely for a moment, before Jessica replied, "Indeed." She turned to Heather. "I think she's been snogging James, what do you think?"

            "Oh," Heather waved a hand dynamically, "perhaps they've been doing more than snogging…"

            "Bloody Hell!" Lily exclaimed, wide-eyed. "Fine, I'll tell you!" She clamped her mouth shut furiously. A pause ensued. 

            "Well?" Jessica tapped her chin and Heather waved another hand for her to get on with it.

            "I…" Lily looked down at her hands and squirmed. She couldn't possibly tell them. What would they say, what would they do? She would never live it down, with their sense of humor. And they called _her_ snide. She huffed, earning her a couple of strange looks. "I've just been…uneasy about Luke." She started off in a hurry. "I mean, you see the way he walks around looking murderous, about ready to strangle any guy I even look at. He said he'd kill the person who stole me from him."

            Wrong, wrong thing to say. She realized it just after the words streamed out of her mouth. Jessica smiled innocently. "Oh, I see. So this is about James' safety." It wasn't a question.

            "Absolutely not!"

"You're so predictable Lily."

            "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I thought it was rather concrete."

            "Don't get smart with me. I was only trying to explain to you why I'm-"

"Good. Then stop lying to us."

            "I was not lying…" It was no use. They always managed to break her down, one way or another. Damn them, they were clever! Either that, or Lily was blind…or both. She glared at the two of them, with their uncharacteristically guiltless faces. "With the way you treat me, it's a wonder we even call each other friends."

            Without warning, Heather and Jessica nodded to each other and leaned forehead, embracing Lily in a tight hug. The red-head began to cough. "Wha- what?" she asked, and they pulled back, grinning. Her expression softened. As disagreeable as she was, she couldn't resist _that. _She raised a suspecting eyebrow. "Are you trying to butter me up?"

            "Why would you ever think that?" Heather smiled at her. 

Jessica blurted out, "It's okay, Lily. We know you well enough.  If you don't want to say anything yet, we aren't going to make you."

            "Yet." Heather added, her smiling mounting in amusement.

"But like I said- we know you. Don't think we don't know what you're thinking about."

            Lily blushed and tried to conceal it with her pillow.

"See! I told you!" the blonde-haired girl pointed a lightly accusing finger.

@~~~~~~~~~~~~~~@

            Later on that night, Lily rolled over restlessly. Jessica and Heather were asleep, but she couldn't seem to find the will to close her eyes. Her mum had always said that you couldn't fall asleep unless you let go of a considerable amount of your thoughts, and that was impossible, now. She sighed quietly and rose to a sitting position, staring at the walls across from her.

            _I'll just go into the common room so I don't wake anyone up,_ she decided. Then she realized that was a dumb idea- she would most likely find James there. He was always up late. And then she was surprised to learn- she _wanted to run into James- in a way. __Oh, blast it. I'm gonna have to talk to him sometime or another. It might as well be when I'm expecting it._

            She nodded to herself and slipped out of her bed as quietly as she could, tip-toeing to the door and rushing out, hoping she made no noise. She wasn't in the mood to answer any questions.

            She descended the stairs and the common room came into her line of view quickly. Sure enough, she was right. James, always the last one up, was sitting in front of the fire, staring and running both hands through his hair, which stood up on its own as usual. She almost smiled at him, before she realized her current position and bit her lip instead.

            She was making noise as she approached, she was sure of it; James quickly spun around. His eyes widened when he realized who was standing in front of him.

            "Um, Lily? What are you d-doing out here?"

Lily smiled weakly to herself. _And I'm supposed to be the awkward one. I must be handling this quite well. _"I'm allowed."

            "Yeah- of, of course." He spluttered, turning back around to face the fire without hesitation.

            Lily sighed again and dropped onto the couch next to him. She didn't know how to start, and he seemed to be trying to forget that she was there at all. Was that a good sign? "James?"

            "Yeah?" he squeaked.

"I- I wanted to talk about what I had said, er, yesterday."

            "What about it?"  
She grunted. "What do you _mean_- what about it? Are you really that dense?"

            He grinned at her suddenly. "Most of the time, I'm told."

"By who? Your idiot friends?" they were both grinning now. But, when she remembered, amusement was erased from her expression. "I- what have you been doing since- since I talked to you last?" she asked. It was too painful to say, 'since I confessed my senselessness to you'; she didn't want to give up what little pride she still retained.

            It was his turn to sigh and blush slightly. "Nothing." He paused. "Although- Sirius did end up slapping Filch in the nose and then Professor Aster grabbed him by the shoulders, so we escaped…"

            Lily shook her head and held up a hand. "I don't even want to know." She smiled slightly, but tried to hide it behind a cough. 

            "What about Luke?" he abruptly asked.

Oh right…he didn't know. "What about him?" She asked, implying everything. He got the picture, it seemed.

            "That's all I need to hear." 

She scrunched up her face and blurted out, "I thought this would be so much more awkward."

            James replied softly, "Me too."

"You must not have been listening to me back in the library, then." It was said with regret, surprisingly enough.

            "I was…" he looked into her eyes, not withdrawing at all this time. "This is the first time you've actually opened up to me. I'm sorry, I don't know what to say."

            She was the one to avert her gaze, looking down at the dark red floor of the common room. "I have my reasons."

            He grabbed her hand, entwining his fingers in hers without really noticing it, or he might have been embarrassed. "Then tell me."

            "I can't-" She stared at their hands, clasped together, her eyes practically bugging out. And then she seemed to internally decide something, and nodded to herself. She squeezed his hand and looked back up at him. He grinned at her, feeling like he had finally won.

            She couldn't help but smile back. Patting him on the head with amusement, she said, "I'm so confused." And her smile faded again. Her lips constricted, before she announced in a suddenly strained and quiet voice, "Don't tell anyone."

            He pulled back. "What do you mean?" He stared at her, confused and a little angry.

"I- shouldn't be here." She seemed to suddenly realize. She scooted away from him, wanting at the same time to kiss him senseless. She stared at her legs and hands in her lap.

            He licked his dry lips. "You- you said you needed it."

She crossed her arms. "I don't need anything."

            "I think you do."

_Oh, here we go again. So much for him being the awkward one. Damn. _She uttered, "Don't be smart with me."

            "Hypocrite." He said, causing her head to snap up angrily. He was smiling carefully at her. She was about to retaliate when he leaned over and gave her a forceful kiss, leaving her breathless.

            "Well- well maybe we could keep it secret." She said, pulling him back over so that she could initiate the kiss this time, and more fiercely. He didn't protest, kissing her back with the same warmth. Lily felt like she was sinking…into something she had never been in before. Whatever it was, it certainly felt nice…

            He pulled back and she made a noise of protest. He said, "What do you mean, secret?"

            She closed her eyes and groaned. "I'm sorry- I don't know any other way…" She answered, thinking of her friends and her past; but mostly her friends. Not to mention her reputation for hating guys. What was this? Such a confusing situation that she was tempted to laugh.

            He threw his hands up in the air. "Fine." He muttered, not really angrily, but bothered a little. 

            She rose from the couch, her jaw clenched, wiping the side of her mouth. James rose with her. He pulled her back around and started another kiss- and then a noise startled the silence. Two sets of eyes popped open, and through the kiss, they watched the stairs.  Soon, both spotted a certain well-known blonde-haired idiot descending. James glanced at Lily, and seeing her disturbed expression, quickly grabbed his invisibility cloak and draped it over them, then leaned down to kiss her again.

       Luke pranced down the steps, his eyes venomous. Lily regretfully broke off the kiss, watching him a moment. He had definitely heard them; he was scanning the room with interest; but thank the lord, the invisibility cloak concealed everything. She smiled surreptitiously and abruptly buried her face in James' chest so that she could stifle a laugh.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

**A/N: A lot of pointless dialogue, some sappy moments- any chance of a review? =) I'll love you forever, as long as I don't fall asleep first…lol, can you tell that I'm tired?**

**Caz****- Yes, but it seems that she won't ever fully wake up. At least, not quite yet. **Dara****** finVidya- Thanks for coming back again! Lol, and no worries, I think James is just as embarrassed. ****KeeperOfTheMoon**- **I agree, I'd be so mortified I'm not sure if I'd ever come out of my room. But that's just me. Yep, I like the term ego-boosting. Maybe I'll use it more often…**MysticPixie******- Thanks for taking the time to review, I of course really appreciate it ;) **Lamina Court- **Lol, actually, one of my friends did something similar to the "they're sexy" line. It was pretty amusing, let me tell you. Thanks for reviewing, _again_! **Libberacious******- that was rather mean, wasn't it? I just don't notice these things when I write *coughs*. And Lily doesn't want to be in an, um, formal relationship just yet. But what they have is whatever you make of it lol. Thanks for another review, as usual. **Golden.Slumbers******- Yes, if I had total control of my life I think I'd be a very happy person. You really make me very happy, reading all of my stories and reviewing ;) Makes me feel as if someone cares (hehe). So thanks a bunch, as always! **Does it matter?- **Heh, you made me laugh. I'm glad you found the story enjoyable, I hope you continue to, of course! ****Destiny's ****Phoenix****- well at least I know that _some people can spell phoenix properly. I'm from Arizona, you see, so it bothers me sometimes. Lol, thanks for taking the time to leave me a rather nice review! _****Daman-**** Thanks a lot! Why are you apologizing? I'm supposed to be thanking you!…hehe, I confuse myself sometimes. ****Sayo**- **Why am I so forgetful? I promise, I'll read your friend's story now. I completely forgot. Anyways, thanks a bunch for leaving me a review. ****Blueskywillow555- I'm glad you like it this way; I think I've confused far too many people…but yes, I think James is finished playing games. That doesn't mean we're finished with the confusion though! ****Hpfan1750- Thanks =) I hope you continue to like it. **Amber- **Ha! Luke still doesn't know! As for when he finds out…oh, we'll see. And thanks! ****Everblue3- Thanks so much, you make me happy. Glad you like the description; it's always been one of my faults. **Christabell****- **Lol, yeah. My friend did something similar not too long ago, so I picture it perfectly…**Holly- **well, I hope it's at least a little different. I don't like to be incredibly cliché. Thanks for reviewing!**

**I was thinking about how annoying it must be to say this every single chapter, but then, I realized that it's a tradition now- it would just be wrong not to. So- I have one word left (after all of this garble)- review!  **


	8. Deer in the Common Room

**A/N: I'm soo sorry! This update is long overdue, I know. But let me explain. First, I was grounded for two weeks. Then, I was out of town for a week. When I got back, we had to move to a new house. And a couple days ago, my mom fell and broke her leg (or rather, shattered her tibia) and had to have surgery. Now we have to move into a hotel for at least six weeks, because she won't be able to do…well, anything. So I hope you understand why it's taken so long for me to do anything…and no, I have not abandoned this story, for those of you who asked!**

**@~~~~~~~~~@**

Chapter 8- Deer in the common room 

            James looked down at Lily with brown-eyed interest. "What's funny?" he whispered, the both of them still underneath the cloak. Lily stopped her quiet snickering immediately, her head rising to look at him with a glare that said it all. He chuckled. Luke glanced over at the spot where they stood, furious and ready to get to the bottom of the small noises. 

            Her green eyes followed his figure, trying to determine what he would do next. Sure enough, he advanced directly towards them, his eyes darting back and forth, searching. Suddenly, James began to shift, and Lily looked at him as if he were mad. "Stay still." She hissed almost inaudibly. He ignored her, and threw the cloak off himself, leaving it covering her. 

            She gasped and looked at where James was standing….or had been. A rich brown stag stood next to her, rearing its head violently at Luke, whose eyes widened. The blonde-haired boy shrieked and stumbled backward, tripping over a chair. The stag advanced on him, causing his blue eyes to widen in fright.

            "You can bite my hand off, anything! But I beg of you, don't touch the hair!" He screeched. The stag threw his head back as if he found it funny, and Luke took the opportunity to disappear with the quickness of someone worried about ruining their hair…which, you hopefully need never find out, is very fast.

            Meanwhile, the stag carefully returned to Lily, who had peeled off the cloak and looked nothing short of completely bewildered. She swallowed her 'what the hell?!' and crossed her eyes instead. 

            James transformed back into his human self and his forehead creased. "Um…yeah…" he gave her a very strange look indeed. "What _are_ you doing?"

            She uncrossed her eyes and rolled them, causing a slight bout of dizziness. "What? Just making sure I wasn't hallucinating."

            "Please never advise people on how to handle anything."

Crossing her arms, she asked him, "Why not?"  
            "Because you suck at it yourself." He explained casually. "Making sure you're not hallucinating, my ass…more like making it seem that you're on...something bad."

            "I'm not!" she poked him in the chest, emphasizing her defiance. There were a million things she wanted to say, but her mouth remained shut.

            "Well, you must have some sense of humor, honestly!"

"I'm sorry James. I do, but you just aren't funny." She shrugged innocently, turned before he could reply, and climbed the stairs to her dorm, suddenly feeling a bit sleepy, not to mention triumphant for beating James at his own game. She was halfway up when she realized just what she had wanted to ask him. How _could he have caused her to forget? Racing back down and forgetting to stop when she saw James, she collided into him._

            "Oof." He clutched his stomach. "What are you doing, trying to kill me?"

She wasted no time. "Trying to get me off track with the dumb questions, eh James? Did you think I'd forget to ask you _what the crap happened a few minutes ago_?"

            His mouth thinned, but curved slightly. "Actually, yes I did."

She tapped her foot impatiently; he got the idea and decided it would be better not to beat around the bush on this one. "I'm an Animagi." Her mouth dropped open and he watched her reaction smugly. "Couldn't you guess as much, or did you think a stag suddenly appeared and disappeared out of nothing?"

            For the second time that night, she rolled her eyes. "I'm not kidding James, this is serious…and very strange. So you're unregistered, then?"

            "Yep." He stated simply.

"Uhh…" Obviously, she wasn't sure what to say to that. The information processed itself in her sleepy mind. So, her boyfriend was an Animagi….hold up, _boyfriend_? Suddenly she glared at him, which caused the messy-haired boy to become a little confused.

            "What?! Bloody hell, what did I do _now_?"  
Lily shook her thoughts and her glare faded. Looking at him curiously, she said thinly as she yawned, "We'll discuss this later." Then she turned away and proceeded towards the stairs, again.

            James grunted. "I'm overjoyed." Lily couldn't help but present him with a small smile before turning the corner and disappearing out of his line of sight.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            At breakfast the next morning, everyone was more quiet than usual. Lily sat across from her two friends, almost falling asleep on her toast. They didn't miss this.

            "I thought you went to bed when we did." Heather said, watching the red-head inquisitively.

            Lily's head shot up. "Yeah, I….had trouble getting to sleep."

"I see…" Jessica answered, trying to figure out why that answer didn't seem believable. But then, they didn't really have too much of a reason to doubt Lily's word…did they?

            Lily shrugged and took a bite out of her toast. At that moment, Luke burst into the Great Hall, frazzled-looking. However, he never forgot to spare the ladies a white smile. She prepared herself to be pestered, but hallelujah, he sat with the Marauders for reasons of his own. The boys were a few seats down, and Lily could hear Luke say, "You'll never believe what I saw last night!"

            Sirius gave him a pointed look while James tried to imply that they didn't care in the slightest, but the American didn't appear to catch much of this. 

            He continued, "There was a deer in the common room!"

"Yeah sure." Peter blurted out, rolling his eyes. But the other three glanced around at each other briefly. Lily couldn't hear what Sirius replied, but it caused all four of them to burst out laughing, while Luke looked confused.

            Lily shook her head and turned back to her friends. Heather was casually twirling a piece of dark hair around her finger. "Watching James?" she inquired, trying to look uninterested.

            Glaring at her, Lily took another bite of her toast. But she didn't miss the look James sent her way. A look that was amused and also bothered. Amused at the stupidity of Luke, and bothered most likely by the fact that she was trying to ignore him. He had thought this had been resolved…so wrong he was. Continuing to send her looks throughout breakfast, he hoped that she would fix whatever problems she had with the two of them officially being together, and soon.

            Lily, on the other hand, was fighting the urge to jump up and pull James out of the Hall for a good snog. Yes, it wouldn't be such a big deal…But then she glanced at her friends. _Never mind that, yes it would. _Could she trust James?_ Always follow your heart…_Her mother's words rang in her head. So long ago had she heard them, and yet it was one of those things she couldn't forget, even if she didn't know why. _Bloody saying, I don't believe in that crap. Not after…_She shook herself, suddenly aware of the fact that Jessica and Heather were staring at her, ready to leave for their first class.

            "Oh." Lily said. "One sec."

Heather rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "You've been a little distant lately, Lil. I think the three of us should do something fun, like old times."

            Lily immediately felt a rush of gratitude. Had her friends not always been by her side? Of course they had…she should at least show them that she appreciated it. She smiled. "That sounds spectacular. What havoc wrecking did you have in mind?"

            "Hmm…" Heather tapped her foot. "We'll have to discuss this in Potions, I think."

Jessica looked between them and smiled. "I have a good feeling about all this."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Something Lily had dreaded happened that evening. They were walking down the corridor, headed back to the Gryffindor common room for the night, and who should come up but the very person she wanted to avoid…until later, of course. Heather and Jessica stopped before James, looking at Lily curiously and grinning like fools.

            He abruptly looked uncomfortable. "Erm- need to, uh, pull Lily away for a bit. Head stuff, of course."

            Jessica raised an eyebrow at the same time she brushed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "Yeah, _sure_."

            Heather was watching Lily, who was carefully trying to monitor her expression. _Be angry and annoyed, _she told herself. She rather thought that she was pulling it off as she glared, nodded, told her friends she'd meet them later, and stalked off after James.

            Heather and Jessica glanced at one another. "Ten to one they'll be together by next month." Heather said. 

            "Hey," Jessica held up a hand. "you don't need to convince me."

They thought themselves clever, all aware and knowing of everything around them. So much did they know…that they forgotten to pay attention to the obvious signs. Had they known that Lily was helplessly snogging James in the closest empty classroom, they would have been a little more than surprised. But mostly, they would have been disappointed that they had not gotten to the bottom of it before it had happened.

~~

            Just after Lily turned where her friends could not see her and James, she smiled up at him. At this, he couldn't help but smile back, and all of his doubts of her caring about him at all vanished…at least for the most part. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the next empty classroom, shutting the door behind them.

            Lily wasted no time in grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling his mouth down, and James of course did not protest. After a moment, she pulled back and leaned against him, suddenly a little dizzy. His hand reached up without him telling it to, and patted her on the head.

            She had an amused look in her emerald eyes as she looked up at him. "I'm not a dog, you know."

            He smiled. "Really? Because you look a lot like one…" Of course, that earned him a swat on the arm, even if he had been joking. "Should I call you Sparky?"

            "You do, and I'll..." She trailed off, staring at the floor, still in very close proximity to him.

            "Not if I can get to you first." He leaned down to kiss her, but she moved her head away.

            "No way. I am not letting you." She stared at him with big green eyes, smiling inwardly. He grumbled something, but before he could complain, she added, "I'm letting myself."

            Obviously, she didn't really make sense, but James was used to this. He accepted her mouth when she moved it closer. However, they quickly broke it off when there was a skittering at the door. Lily practically forced James away just as the door opened and her friends entered. Jessica and Heather looked slightly disappointed that the two teenagers in front of them were a good distance apart and showed no sign of interesting activity. 

            "Oh, yeah, well- we thought we'd come see what was taking so long." Jessica shrugged.

            Lily gave her a funny look. "It's been five minutes, you idiot."

"I know that." She rolled her blue eyes at Lily and smiled.

            "Anyway," Heather broke in, "let's go back to the common room."

Lily nodded, fighting the urge to glance at James. It would certainly be the wrong thing to do…she didn't know how long she could control herself. Although she enjoyed calling her friends idiots, they really weren't. They were bound to notice any slip of her usual behavior. 

            So she followed them out of the classroom and down the corridor for who knows how long; she wasn't paying attention. She knew that James was right behind her. Heather and Jessica went in first and almost immediately burst out laughing.

            Lily stepped in behind them, bewildered. "What?" she blurted out.

Neither of them appeared to be able to speak, they were laughing so hard. Heather only pointed to Sirius, whose lower backside, or arse as he called it, was right in their line of sight. It was both very amusing and incredibly disgusting.

            Once Jessica regained control of her voice, for the most part at least, she said, "Crack is bad for you!" which only caused another eruption of hysterical laughter.

**@~~~~~~~~~@**

**A/N: Thanks for all of the support for this story, you all made me really happy. I'm sorry if this chapter was crap, especially since it took so long to get it up, but I'm just too tired to look over and fix things; I haven't been getting much sleep lately. Anyway, I hope that you aren't completely annoyed with me- and hopefully we'll be able to hook up some kind of internet connection at the hotel! (If we can't, I think I'll go mad…) **

**Right…pay no attention to me; I'm falling asleep at the keyboard (again).**

**@~~~~~~~~~@**

**Kristen Anne- **I'm so happy you liked it, thank you! **Everblue3- **I wanted to thank you not only for your review(s) on this story, but also on my other stories. I really appreciate it! **Sayo**-  **Scary? Yes, he is, I agree. Thanks for finding it amusing. ****Caz**- **Lol, I still have no idea where I came up with the idea of smacking Filch…I can be weird sometimes (okay, all the time..) **KeeperOfTheMoon****- **Lol, yep…together at least sort of. **Laura- **Aww, what a nice thing to say! I want to hug you, but I bet you'd rather I just say thanks…****Bixxxou****- Well, Lily's stubborn. Her friends have been bothering her about James for some time. She wants to prove them wrong. And while something draws her to James, she's also repelled because of past experience with other guys. Anyway, I hope that sort of answered your question…although, basically, Lily just has it all wrong. =) ****Daman-**** Aw, thank you! I love it when people tell me it's one of their favs. I hope you keep reading. ****Dara** finVidya- **Lol, he's a very big idiot. And yep, Lily got some courage. Thanks so much for two reviews! And sorry about the not updating…I explained at the beginning A/N, if I remember correctly lol. ****Golden.Slumbers**- **Hm, still having review-submitting problems? Lol. Thanks for the hug =) It made me feel very special. Haha, I enjoy responding to your reviews as well. And about reviewing your story- what did you expect? It was really good. And when I get some time on my hands, which will hopefully be soon, I'll read your other story (or stories). Thanks again, of course. ;) **Little Rogue- **Haha, yes. Everyone seems to like that they're together, and I can't blame them. **Mooky******- You're right, it would be highly amusing. Too bad not in this chapter…but there are more opportunities for that to come. Thanks again! **Syders******- Aw, thanks for reviewing all of my stories, it really makes me feel like someone special! ****Lamina Court- Lol, your review made me laugh. Thanks for that ;) I wish I could come up with something interesting to say, but I'm finding it hard to stay awake as it is. I'm gonna have to finally finish your story (I should have sooo long ago) and leave you a long review! **LadyArwen******- Thanks so much! I'm glad you think it's different. Too much of the same gets boring after awhile, but hopefully I stay away from most clichés. **Destiny's Phoenix- **Nothing bad? I'm honored ;) Nope, I didn't even mean that sarcastically, even if I am a sarcastic person…so thanks a bunch! **Nerdypurdy****- **Oh…you. Lol, just kidding! I was gonna have you look over this chapter, but then I thought I might as well go ahead and post it. Funny, when you reviewed this, we didn't know each other ;) ****Amber- Well at least it hasn't been months…and I should be able to update more often, provided that nobody else in my family hurts themselves or we have to move again, lol. Anyway, I'm rambling as usual…thanks for putting up with me! **Pittsy******- Oh, I will. I'm glad you're enjoying it! **Libberacious******- Lol, James is a fav of mine too. But Lily doesn't have all of her senses intact just yet it seems…maybe later. Thanks for another review, I really enjoy reading yours. ****Evy**- **Lol, a fight would have been amusing, I agree. There's always time for that though…thanks for reviewing! ****TIA- Yeah, I have a few other stories…2 others I'm currently working on ;) On your top 5? Wow, thank you! **aMaNda****-****** Yes, and now ;) Haha, thank you! **Soccer_luver_9- **Well, I have a feeling Lily's friends and Luke will find out around the same time…but you never know. Oh wait, I should, shouldn't I? Lol…****Mel- Oh, I'm sorry! I feel so bad about not updating, especially when people are so nice to me. But nope, I won't abandon this story, I like it too much. Thanks!! ****Natalie- Lol, thanks. Made me smile. I hope you'll read this when you get back from vacation!**

**Lol****, these are crappy thanks. I'm only discouraging you from reviewing, aren't I? Oh well =)**

**Until next chapter,**

**~Emily~**


	9. Whatcha Doing?

Chapter 9- Whatcha doing?

            Some things you do without thinking. Or maybe you do them while unconsciously thinking; whatever the case, they gradually become habitual reflexes and you ignore them altogether.

            Lily's relationship with James was somewhere along those lines. All of the sneaking around, the hiding from her friends; it was reflex behavior. When she came in late at night and her friends asked after where she had been with their usual hopeful smirks, she would smile and respond, "In the library." or "in the Heads room, catching up on homework." And for some reason, they believed her. At least, she supposed they did. 

            When they would ask her how she felt about James, even if she was only half paying attention, she would say, "He's an inconsiderate bastard." It was good thing too. If these things weren't involuntary for her, she would have already told them everything on her mind.

            The real question, the one she had been avoiding most, was- _should_ she tell them? Every other girl would consider that the easiest problem ever. They wouldn't give it a second thought. But not Lily; she was too cautious, too unforgiving, and too untrusting. Of her own best friends? Well, not exactly. Truthfully, she trusted them more than anyone else, and rightfully so. What killed her was the fact that they had _predicted all of this! She couldn't possibly give them the satisfaction, the opportunity to say to her, "I told you so!" in a tone that would make her cringe. Thinking about it made her cringe._

            With Jessica and Heather, it had always been back and forth. The three of them weren't so openly close, but even if they didn't show it, they _were_ close. It was the sarcastic nature that caused them to playfully tease each other and play tricky mind games. For sure, if they found out about Lily's sneaking around, they wouldn't let her hear the end of it.

            This is why Lily continued to smile sweetly and say, "I hate him, why the hell do you care?"

~*~*~*~

            "Bloody _hell…" Lily moaned, sitting on the edge of her bed in the dorm, swinging the inside of her feet against each other repetitively and staring at the essay sitting next to her. Potions had never been her favorite class. Severus Snape was probably the only person who actually liked it…well, he could take her essay and eat it for all she cared. Knowing him, he just might._

            Jessica and Heather glanced over at her questioningly. She smiled at them and said, "I'm just having trouble with this Potions essay."

            The two of them glanced at each other, blue eyes meeting brown in confusion. They turned back to Lily and raised their eyebrows. "I thought you finished that last night in the Heads room." Heather suspiciously narrowed her eyes as if searching for a clue.

            Lily swallowed. Damn, she _had said that, hadn't she? "Erm…yeah, I just…lost that copy." The half moon seemed to glare at her through the window, as if it somehow knew that she was lying. Of course, if it was glaring, that would mean she was hallucinating. She blinked and focused her emerald eyes again on her friends._

            "Well," Jessica shrugged, "don't you have a basic idea of what you wrote?"

Lily frowned. "No. I was…tired last night."

            Heather shrugged. "Sucks for you, then."

"Right." Lily absently rose from the bed and gathered her things. "I'm going to the library to pick out a book to help me. I probably won't be back for awhile, so don't bother waiting for me." With that, she smiled and left.

            Heather turned to Jessica. "She's been smiling more lately."

Jessica nodded in agreement. "But I guess that's a good thing."

            "Are you blind? Something's going on that we don't know about!" 

The blonde-haired girl rolled her eyes. "As if I didn't notice. But what do you think it is?" she rubbed a hand against her chin, as if she were in one of those old mystery movies where the chin-rubbing was a must for solving the case.

            "I would say James, but she seems adamant about hating him…maybe we were just wrong about the two of them." Heather sighed, leaning a hand against her cheek and thinking about what they were missing. "Well," she continued, "there is one way to find out."

            "You mean follow her?" Jessica frowned. "I suppose. But I have a better idea…"

            Heather glanced at her friend with probing brown eyes. "What then?"

 There was a pause. "Okay, so maybe I _don't have a better idea….but we can always think of one."_

~*~

            Meanwhile, the Head Girl was grinning to herself and entering the Heads common room. She walked inside and shut the door behind her. The fire was already roaring and James was, as usual, already waiting for her on the couch. He heard her movement and quickly turned around to smile at her.

            Lily moved quickly, dropping her books and almost blank Potions parchment on a table next to the door. She sighed and fell beside James on the couch, leaning over to give him a brief kiss. 

       "How was your day?" James asked, grinning toothily.

Lily smirked at him. "You were with me the whole day...classes, you know. Have you forgotten already?"

             "I was being courteous, but if you'd prefer-"

"Oh, I would." she grinned and leaned over and caught his lips in another kiss. This was the usual between them; at least it had been for the past couple of weeks. It seemed like hiding it was only too easy.

            James pulled back at some point, holding her at arms length. "Lily?"

"Hmm?" She asked, looking like she was spacing out a little. When he didn't say anything, she tried leaning in to kiss him again. He let her, certainly wanting to himself, but soon he was holding her arms again. Lily looked confused. "What's wrong?" she asked suspiciously. Maybe she had learned to trust James, at least to an extent, but her suspicions would never actually leave her. She had to try and find a way to deal with them.

            "Well…" he sighed. "I was sort of wondering iwcoudtelpepleboutus."

Lily laughed and brushed a strand of black hair out of his eyes. "Go ahead, try again."

            For some reason, he looked a little scared of her. "I was wondering," he said it much clearer the second time around, "if we could tell people about us."

            Her smile faded and she scooted away a little. "I thought we talked about this."

            He was suddenly annoyed. "Well we can't hide it forever! This is stupid! Lily, I played along at first, because I wanted to have some sort of viable relationship with you, but now…this is just bullshit! Why _not_? I told you about me being an Animagi!"

            Her eyes flashed. "You don't understand." She snapped.

James took a deep breath. "Then tell me." 

            "No."

"What the f-"

            "I don't have time for this now, okay?" she stood up, glaring down at him and waving her arms around pointedly, "I've been sneaking down here every night because I like you, but now I'm beginning to think that it's not worth my time!"

            He crossed his arms. "What are you so afraid of?"

Her glare turned into a scowl. "I'm not afraid of anything."

            "_Fine_, we've firmly established that." He clenched his jaw and attempted to soften his words because he knew that was the only way to get anything out of her. "Then what do you not want to happen?"

            Her eyes widened slightly, losing some of their anger. She realized that she was only a step away from telling him everything. These were things she hadn't told_ anyone…why would she tell_ him_? "I'm not going to stand here and explain it all."_

            Shaking his head, he grabbed her arm as she turned to leave and pulled her down onto the couch, next to him. "Okay, then sit."

            "But-" she started. Maybe if she just said a little bit he would be satisfied. Slowly, she mumbled, "You already know something of my friends. I don't really feel like listening to them make fun of me all the time."

            It was really too bad that James wasn't stupid. "That's not all. Why are you hiding this? If I didn't know you better, I might call you crazy."

            "Oh thanks." She snapped at him. "And there isn't anything else."

Her insistence only made him even more certain that she wasn't telling him everything. He was becoming impatient. "Why won't you just tell me?"

            Lily blinked at his sudden hard tone and scooted away again. "I'm telling you everything that I have to tell right now. If there was anything else, you would know when you need to know."

            "That's crap." He mumbled. "I'll bet you think this is all a funny trick."

"You know, James, I've been falling behind in classes, all because I come and meet you every night. I give it all up to be here, and you still say that I'm treating this as a joke?"

            "Damn it, look around you! You're always so self-absorbed! Have you ever thought that other people might be in a bad position as well? Just because you hate most people in general doesn't mean that you can walk around thinking that you're the only person on Earth who has needs. Who the hell cares if you're falling behind, you aren't the only one sacrificing!"

            Tears came unbidden to her eyes, making them shine, but she firmly held them back. Crying in front of him was definitely not what she planned to do. She looked angry and a little hurt as she flung herself off the couch, picked her things up from the table, and left. 

~*~*~*~

            Throughout classes the next day, which happened to be a Friday, Lily couldn't stop herself from glaring at James. Of course, this meant that Jessica and Heather noticed it all, but she didn't really care what they thought of it.

            The trouble was that Lily didn't notice that she wasn't only glaring at him. There was something about the _way she seemed angry with him that gave her friends the first clue. They had seen many couples fight, and this eerily reminded them of those past occasions. Especially when James would return her evil glance; he had never acted like that before._

            In Potions, Heather whispered to Jessica, "Watch the two of them closer. There is definitely something going on that we don't know about." Jessica gave her a strange look. "Don't pretend like you don't know who I mean when I say the two of them. You aren't _that dull." _

            And then came dinner. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, except that Lily and James were sitting across from each other because those were the only two seats left at the Gryffindor table.

            They sneered at each other and stabbed their food, lost in their own angry worlds. Meanwhile, James and Lily's friends were sitting next to them, watching in confusion.

            "Prongs?" Sirius started, his fork halfway to his mouth, which was open.

"What?" James snapped.

            "Why are you acting so…scary?" he grinned, abruptly realizing that there was nothing on his fork (because Remus had taken it off) and frowning while he piled more food onto it.

            James threw his own fork down. "What do you mean?" he demanded.

Sirius only smiled sweetly. "You're not angry with _me_, Prongs, so I forgive you for yelling."

            "Padfoot, you're annoying the shit out of me!" 

But Sirius wasn't paying attention. The food on his half-raised fork was gone again. He grumbled something under his breath and Remus, who was sitting on his right, chuckled.

            Lily's eyes narrowed dangerously at James. "Well you're annoying the hell out of everyone here!"

            "Lily, _dearest," he sneered at her, "I think you're the only one annoyed by me."_

            Around that moment, Luke came in, taking a seat next to Peter, which a first year had left open. "Whatcha doing? Eating?" Even if he was still searching for 'who stole Lily', he somehow still managed to annoy everyone he possibly could with his idiot happy attitude, all the time.

            The Marauders glared at him. "For the last time," Sirius growled at him, "Do not ask obvious questions, which are dumb anyway, and answer them yourself. It makes you sound even thicker!" Luke only smiled, irritating the rest of them even further.

            There couldn't be a long lapse in the argument, so Lily started up again, turning back to James with a red face. "You're such an ass! Why can't you just admit when you go too far?"

            Heather leaned forward in interest. She smiled with a full mouth, her cheeks bulging. "So exactly how did you go too far?" It came out sort of muffled, but Lily and James both heard her and she earned two almost identical looks of aggravation. 

            "I'm not the one who has problems admitting things Lily." He hissed. She opened her mouth to retort, but he threw down his fork and stood up.

            "Whatcha doing? Fighting?" Luke cut in, looking pleased with himself for some odd reason. He always seemed to be pleased with himself.

            James looked directly at him with a look that could have killed, then gave Lily one last heated glance before leaving the Great Hall.

            Everyone was staring at Lily. She scowled, threw down her own fork, and grumbled, "He is _not getting away with this." And then she got up and stalked out of the Hall._

            The six of them still sitting there glanced around, half amused and half confused. Should they laugh?

            Sirius made a funny face, looking down at his plate. It was completely empty, but he didn't remember taking a bite.

            An amused Remus commented, "Wow, you ate fast."

Sirius looked over at him, and then down at Remus' plate, which was piled with twice as much food…it suddenly clicked in his mind. "Hey! Give that back!" Remus only laughed.

            Heather and Jessica were quiet, staring at their food. Was it possible that they had been wrong again? What was going on? The signs went back and forth, and they weren't sure what to pay attention to anymore.

            Jessica said, "We should probably go find Lily before she kills something."

"Yes, save our friend from the wrath of the flower!" Sirius called out. "But I will stay here, because people come to me, and I do not go after them." He pointed his chin upwards, trying to act noble.

            "Well, you may not have a friend left if we don't find Lily." Heather commented, grinning at him.

            Sirius shrugged. "Oh well, we'll see in an hour or so."

"Quite frankly," Remus broke in, "I don't have a clue what's going on."

            "And you think we do?" Jessica turned to her dark-haired friend. "Let's go." They left amidst waves from the Marauders and a white smile from Luke.

            Luke watched Remus, Sirius, and Peter, who glared at him. "Right then. I'm going to go look for Lily as well."

            Peter raised an eyebrow, but before he could ask any questions, Luke was gone and Sirius and Remus were fighting over Remus' doubly filled plate.

~*~

            Lily stalked through the halls with a flushed face. Where was that damn boy? She couldn't help but feel that she was in the wrong as much as he was, but the trouble was admitting it._ Well, she decided, __if he apologizes, I'll tell him what he wants to know. But first, she wanted to kick his ass; which was the purpose of her present search._

            She came up to the Transfiguration classroom, and was about to pass the door, when a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her inside.

            Lily groaned. "Get off!"  
James narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

            "Because I'm about to knee you and I don't think it will feel nice!"

He took a step backwards. She took a step forwards. He held onto her arms and said, "Truthfully, I didn't pull you in here so that we could beat each other up. I wanted to say something."

            She pulled out of his grip. "What then? Say it so we can get on with this!"

"I'm…er…sorry…" he mumbled, looking at his shoes.

            Her mouth dropped open. "What did you just say?"

Their eyes met each other. "You heard me."

            "But-" she sighed, brushing a hand against her eyes and feeling tired all of a sudden. "Oh fine."

            He beamed. _Damn it, now I have to tell him. She battled with her thoughts, but she knew what she needed to do. But was it really necessary to do it now?_

            "I want to know what you're not telling me." James stated, addressing her exact thoughts. "But, you don't have to tell me tonight. How about you have three nights to tell me, or something like that?"

            She paused. "Fine." She grumbled in response.

He looked taken aback. No yelling at him? No protesting? "Are you okay?" he burst out.

            Her eyes became amused and her hand brushed his side. "Why wouldn't I be?"

            "I don't know…" he trailed off, pulling her a little closer, now that he was sure that she wouldn't be biting his head off.

            "I'm sorry too." Lily whispered, something they both knew was a new phrase to her tongue. He smiled at her and leaned down, softly pressing his lips against hers. His hands tangled in her long strands of auburn hair and they both were reminded of why they went through so much nonsensical trouble for this.

~*~

            In the mean time, Jessica and Heather pranced down the corridors, glancing around for any flash of red hair.

            "Well that was fun." Jessica grinned, meaning the dinner.

"Definitely." Heather glanced around. "Why are we looking around here?"

            They were nearing the corridor branching off to the Charms and Transfiguration classrooms, which were in close proximity with one another. "I dunno." Jessica shrugged. "It's not as if we know where she went. Might as well look over here."

            "Right." They heard a few noises break the silence ahead, and their eyes met questioningly. "Whatever we find out," Heather whispered to her, "we shouldn't tell Lily, or anyone, right away."

            Bewildered, Jessica inquired, "Why not?"

"Because we can have so much more fun with it if Lily doesn't know that we know, while we know that we know. She'll just think that we know that we don't know and she knows it too, or maybe she thinks we don't suspect anything…"

            Jessica looked at her like a psychiatrist in training might look at a delirious patient. "Whatever the hell you just said, you can explain it to me later. I hear something."

@~~~~~~~~~~~@

**A/N: I'm not sure why, but this chapter was specifically fun to write.**

**KV- **Lol, it doesn't matter if you don't know what else to say, the fact that you think it's great is enough for me to be happy. Thanks ;) **Jade Angel Black- **Well actually, something similar happened to my friends and I when we walked into Spanish class, only the guy didn't know that his butt crack was showing. It was hilarious. Haha, pajamas with footies are great, aren't they? **Barbara- **Lol, Luke and his hair…he'll never learn. Thanks for writing? Thanks for reading and reviewing! **Everblue3- **Well thanks. Lamina Court, she's a funny one, she is. Her little stories are definitely entertaining, I know what you mean by it being hard not to laugh. You're a bit nuts? Sometimes I have multiple personalities. Do you ever start making funny noises when class is really boring and not notice until someone says something to you? Lol, at least it was my friend today and not me. The worst part was when we couldn't stop laughing when we were supposed to be dissecting a pig because someone on the other side of the room had yelled out, "You dumbass, they all have nipples!" And why am I telling you this? See what I mean; I _am_ a little off the hook. **KirbeeDesirae****- Yeah, I sort of did have a few rough weeks there, but everyone has them and it's getting better around here. Thanks for the encouragement. I agree, these chapters need to be longer! **Soccer-luver-9- **Well let me know when you get that story up! Yeah, I started out just reading a lot of fics on the site, but then I got bored and decided to try writing something. Gosh, and it's been a year since then! Lol, thanks for leaving me two reviews again ;) ****Mooky****- Thanks, my mom is doing a little better, but she's still in a wheelchair. I'm glad you liked last chapter and took the time to review! **Nerdypurdy******- Lol, I know, it was a long time ago. How long have we been talking? Oh hell, I have no idea anymore…No chance your computer's fixed yet, is there? You need to get online, I'm bored already! **Fiery red-haired girl- **Makes me happy that you count it with your favs! Thanks a bunch! ****Caz****- Lol, as you can probably tell, it looks like their relationship will be figured out before Lily will ever reveal it. Well at least you didn't think it was weird, because I am, so I can never tell ;) **Lamina Court- **Lol, made me laugh the second time I read it too. Slippers indeed. Sounds like you have a humorous life, especially family wise. My family is just plain retarded sometimes. I walked in yesterday and my little sister (who's 5) was watching South Park. I don't think she realized that it wasn't a normal cartoon show, lol, but she was laughing even though she didn't understand. Anyway, I'm not going to bore you to death, so thanks again. **Cabge******- Aw, it always makes me happy when people tell me I'm a good writer, so thanks. Lol, I know what you mean by guys just starting to call you something (like Snoopy)…**Skyleia******- I will keep going. Thank you and I hope you keep reading! **Axania****** chic- Glad you like it so far, thanks much. **Toria******- I hope you liked this chapter too! ****Natalie- Lol, I think you can spell dying two ways, but who really cares anyways? Yes, I have AOL- its Embly51188. I warn you though, I'm away a lot, cause I leave it on all the time. But I'd love to talk sometime. ****FreakyFroggurl22- Lol, I've lost track of the last few months, so I know what you mean. But thanks for coming back to the story and reviewing again, I appreciate it! ****Carolinus**** Took- I will, I promise! I'm sorry it takes me so long to post these chapters…blame my teachers!Thanks a lot for reviewing…again ;) ****Libberacious**- **Luke _is_ quite the self-absorbed one. I completely agree. Lol, thanks for reading, I'm glad this story is one of your favorites of mine. I go back and forth between all 3 I'm working on, myself. **

**A/N: I'm finished! Does anyone else feel relieved when they've finally finished a chapter? It took longer this time too, lol, because my cat kept walking on the keyboard and sitting on the monitor to swing her tail in front of the screen. It's as if she knows she's being annoying. Maybe I underestimate her…I hope you guys liked this chapter!**


	10. Revelation

**A/N: Oh hell, let's not get into how long this took. ;) I have little to say for myself, besides that I've been out of town most of the past two months and living in a hotel when I'm in town. And then, when I did have a few days in which I could have updated before I left for Arizona, I somehow managed to delete something necessary for Microsoft Word to run and was so frustrated that I didn't even bother writing. So anyway, I'm still in a hotel, but I set up a computer here, and we move into our house a week or so before school starts; hopefully once we move in, life will stop being crazy and I'll be able to write more often. Well then, for now I hope you'll be patient with me! I love you guys for reviewing! So, maybe I had a little more than just a little to say for myself, but how was I supposed to know that I would start rambling again? On to chapter 10!**

@~~~~~~~~~~~@

Chapter 10- Revelation

            Tracking down the source of noise was not the problem; regaining coherent thought after spotting your best friend snogging someone when she wasn't supposed to be snogging _anyone_ however, was. It _had_ to be Lily in that classroom, the long auburn hair was the best indication. If only they could see through the dim light to see who the guy was... 

       There was a laugh, and a mumbled, "James, I really am sorry though."

"Holy Hell!" Neither Jessica nor Heather was sure who said it first, but that didn't matter. They stared in equal amazement at the scene in front of them. Jessica blinked profusely, trying to decipher whether or not she was _really_ seeing one of her best friends kissing intimately. Her eyes began to adjust a little more to the lighting. Damn, Lily even had her arms wrapped around James' neck, one hand playing with his already disheveled hair. She managed to pry her eyes away and give Heather, whose mouth had dropped open, a sidelong glance.

            For the next few minutes, they stood transfixed, watching the unexpected scene unfold from the half-open doorway. If either Lily or James had spotted or heard them right then, they wouldn't have been able to so much as move a finger. Luckily those two were far too into what they were doing to even steal a glance towards the door.

       Heather was the first to realize anything. She gave herself a pinch to make sure she wasn't imagining this, and then scooted away from the door, just in case. Very suddenly, a smirk appeared on her face. Oh, the things she could do with this new knowledge! The next week or so now seemed so much brighter. 

       She heard the thumping of feet behind her and an abrupt, "Whatcha doing?"

~*~

       She thought that she had heard a voice in the hall, but then again Lily couldn't register anything besides what she and James were doing. And what were they doing? _I must be crazy. _She was, at that. Pulling back, she looked into his deep brown eyes with the sort of affection that was rarely seen from a girl like her. And to think that she had recently dubbed him the most hateful of all guys. Then again, she wasn't sure whether she had really felt that way at all, or whether she had just made it up because she was afraid of something. Well, there was more time for that sort of thing later.

         "We really shouldn't snog with the door open." Lily mumbled against him, enjoying the feeling of being so close, drinking in his scent. 

            James frowned. Apparently, he hadn't thought of that....should he really care though?

Lily glanced at the door quickly. Besides hearing a few slight noises, there was nothing to be seen. Who would be lurking through the hallways _now_? She turned back to James with a grin and pulled him in for another kiss.

~*~

       Heather whipped around, grabbing Luke and dragging him to the floor. To say the least, he was a bit surprised. Sitting on top of his back, she took a deep breath, and said in a quite pleasant and conversational tone, "So did you find Lily yet?"

       He managed to grunt a no and give her a strange look all at the same time, almost an enormous feat for what was surely an idiot. 

       "And in answer to your question," she sighed, attempting to rest all her weight on his back in hopes that she might squash him, "we were simply taking a stroll around. We thought maybe we'd find Lily, but..." 

       Luke squirmed underneath her, on the verge of panting. His face was pressed against the cold and grimy floor, while Heather casually dug her fingernails into his back. "Well then what's _she_ doing?" He pointed a finger at Jessica, who was still staring amazedly into the classroom, jaw open.

       Heather restrained a smirk. "Nothing." she replied, quickly coming up with an excuse. "I - er - hexed her and she's just in shock."

       Jessica was still a little out of it, but suddenly mumbled, "Hates guys my ass." Her eyes seemed permanently fixed. Heather grinned in amusement and Luke looked puzzled.

       "What-" he started to ask, but Heather smothered him.

Another loud laugh floated out from the classroom, and James' voice rang out, "But just in case, let's go someplace more secluded..."

       Jessica's eyes about popped out of her head during the same moment that Heather seized her arm, dragging both her and Luke down the hall and into another empty classroom in a frenzy. 

       "What's this about?" Luke demanded, seeming to lose just a little of his airy demeanor, momentarily at least.

       "I, er, saw....Mrs. Norris!" Heather exclaimed. "I was just hiding us from her!" 

"But it's before curfew anyway." Luke blurted out. Damn it, of all times for him to say something that made sense...

       Heather's grin faded. "Oh....er, oops."

Luke hastily snatched his arm away from Heather and announced, "Well I still haven't found Lily. I don't know who that guy was, talking about going somewhere else...but I don't really care. Er...I guess I'll...see you later." He gave a little wave, which was surprising considering he had just been flung to the floor, sat on, and dragged into a classroom.

            Praying that Lily and James had already disappeared to wherever it was they were going,   Heather clutched at her chest, breathing deeply. 

            "He would have _killed_ James!" Jessica hissed. "He's still on a killer rampage, you know."

The dark-haired girl sent her a withering look. "Oh really, and what did _you_ do to stop it?"

       "I...oh fine, you win." Jessica grunted. "But there was some pretty interesting stuff going on in that classroom. I was a little preoccupied with watching."

            Heather's face brightened. This was the best part of it so far. "So," she began in a nonchalant voice. "what exactly did I miss?"

            Jessica shrugged, brushing her blonde hair back over her shoulder. "Only our best friend doing exactly what she said she never would. I mean, she was practically throwing herself on James. Well, that is, they were throwing themselves on each other, so it wasn't really a significant part of it..." she trailed off, realizing she made no sense and her friend was grinning and seemed not to be listening anyway. "What?"

            "Oh, nothing." Heather said, her eyes gleaming. "I was only thinking of how we could play this out until Lily finally decides to say something."

            "Why hasn't she yet?" Jessica asked absently.

"Um, dear, isn't that obvious?"

            "No."

She shook her head. "Well, probably for the reason that she was worried we'd do exactly what we _will_ do...but it's not time to say 'I told you so' just yet, I think." Jessica fixed her with a pointed stare, so that she would elaborate. "It's like I said before we caught them, we can have so much more fun by fooling around with her while she has no idea that we know her little secret."

            "Exactly what do you mean by 'fooling around'? I thought we established that I wasn't a lesbian."

            "Oh please, spare me." Heather rolled her eyes. "You're so dim sometimes. I mean, we can do things like when she says she's going to the library or something, assign her to do something for us-"

            "...and since she really isn't going to library, it will really piss her off."

"Of course. Understand now?"

            "I suppose. But in the end, do you think she'll tell us, or will we have to do it for her?"

"That's one thing I have yet to figure out." Heather sighed. "But for now, we should be getting out of here before Mrs. Norris really does show up and find something to land us in detention for."

~*~

            That evening, Jessica and Heather were sitting on a couch in the Gryffindor common room as if nothing at all had happened besides a regular day at school. But that was all part of the plan...

            Lily walked in even later than she had been lately. Why had they not noticed before that when she walked in at night her hair was all over the place and her face was brilliantly flushed? That had to have been the biggest clue. No matter though, because now they knew anyway.

            Jessica smiled up at Lily innocently as she approached them. "What have you been up to?"

            Lily shrugged calmly. "Nothing much. I was just in the library again."

"Oh really? So that's where you were off sn-" she started to say, but Heather swung a hand in front of her face with the intent of quieting her; only she put a little too much force into the swing and smacked her friend in the face.

            Jessica blinked, then brought one of her own hands up to rub her nose in an annoyed fashion. Heather looked sheepish. "Um, oops?"

            Lily shook her head. "You two will always be the weirdest people I know. But don't worry," she continued, "that's what I love about you."

            "Well aren't you in a good mood." Heather stated, raising an eyebrow that might have been suggestive.

At that precise moment, James came through the portrait hole. His hair was even more ruffled than Lily's, but that was nothing new. He looked flushed as well, as if his cheeks had stolen all of the blood in his body. Heather was almost sure that she saw something like adoration in Lily's eyes the split second before she began glaring at James.

            James looked back at her and winked, then waved at the other two girls, before disappearing towards the boys' dormitories. There was a brief silence.

            "So he doesn't seem mad at you anymore." Heather stated calmly, hoping and not hoping at the same time that Lily would let something slip. But it wouldn't be as much fun if she admitted it right off.

            Lily was looking into her lap. "No, guess not." she replied quickly, not giving away any hints. "But why should I care either way?" She smiled softly.

            Jessica sighed as she and Heather exchanged a glance.

~*~

            Lily was a little nervous. It had been two nights already, and now she was just stalling. Really, James deserved to know. Whether she liked it or not, he had gained her trust, and that wasn't something she gave away easily. That wasn't the only thing he had gained from her either, but she wasn't about to discuss how much she cared for him just yet.

            As she entered the Heads room, she took a deep breath. He knew that she would be telling him whatever it was tonight. It was, after all, her last chance before the three-day promise wore out, and Lily Evans never broke a promise. What was it that he was expecting? Lily could only imagine, but just as long as he wasn't going to do anything drastic over the truth.

            He smiled at her as she sat down next to him, leaning over to give her the usual short hello kiss. Then he settled back into the cushions, still holding her hand. Oh yes, he was certainly expecting something.

            Lily raised her eyebrow at his eagerness and gave him a strained smile. She hadn't shared this with anyone and she wasn't really sure how it would be received. _It's only James, _she reminded herself, _only the person you thought you hated most..._

"Er..."

He tried to reassure her. "You don't have to look as if I'm going to hurt you somehow, Lily. I don't know what you're getting ready to tell me, but it honestly can't be that bad." 

            All at once she began to talk. "I used to have a boyfriend named Chris. It was all going really well, and I was starting to have really strong feelings for him. One night I was on my way to meet him in an empty classroom, and I was just so happy about something, I can't even remember why. And then I heard it...I heard him. And this other girl. She definitely wasn't just a friend. I won't go into details about how I felt just then, because it doesn't really matter anymore..." She said it all so quickly that it was difficult to make it all out.

            "That's horrible-" James looked almost relieved; he had expected something worse.

Lily held up a hand to indicate that she wasn't finished yet. "Anyway, one thing led to another. You know me; I'm not one to just take it lightly. I started yelling and stuff. And then, he hit me. Not just once, I don't remember how long it went on. I remember the girl's laughter, and me curling up on the floor. I remember them leaving." She paused, and then whispered, "I never told anyone."

            James didn't react right away. He only sat there and stared in amazement. This wasn't the Lily he knew. She wasn't fierce or even close to it; she was next to him with tears streaming down her face. It all made sense- why she hated guys, why she had never trusted him. Why _should_ she have trusted him?

            "And most of the reason I didn't want to tell people about us was that I would be admitting to really caring about you...and I do." she glanced up at him with a sad smile. "I just didn't want something bad to happen again."

            It was the anger building up inside James that made him jump up from the couch with clenched fists. It scared her at first; she had never seen this side of him before. He was turning red with fury. He knew which guy she was talking about, he remembered them going out...he knew where to find him. "I'm going to kill him!"

            Lily's emerald eyes widened as he swept around her and towards the door. Her tears dried up all at once. Was he _serious_? How did it happen that she was around murderous guys all the time; first Luke and now James? Oh bloody hell.

            "James, NO!" she yelled so loud that he froze halfway to the door. "That's not going to solve anything." she mumbled. It was rather nice to see that he cared so much, but then again, she really didn't want to be sent to the wizard courts for murder.

            "But- Lily- you can't just- we have to do something! I can't believe you never said anything!"

"Well I never wanted it to be a big deal or anything..." she muttered.

            "But it _is_ a big deal!" James exclaimed. "Oh, _fine_! But he's in a lot of trouble now, because I'm not just going to let him get away with abuse. I'm not going to let you do that." He gave a little nod, indicating that his mind was made up. Stalking back to the couch, he fell back beside Lily and leaned over to give her a rough hug. "And here I was thinking you had some other sort of secret..."

            Lily inquired curiously, "What sort of secret would that have been?"  
"Oh, never mind that." his cheeks showed a hint of red.

            "Well I'm glad you - er - took it so....well." she spluttered, then smiled sheepishly.

James seemed to melt back into the guy he usually was as the anger faded. "Yeah, sorry about that. I just...I can't believe you'd ever keep that quiet..."

            She shrugged. Neither had she, but what can you do? Then she remembered what else she had wanted to tell him; or rather, warn him about. "Oh, and one other thing, James." Lily couldn't help but give a small smile. "Luke wants to kill you."

~*~

            Lily brushed her auburn hair in a rush, pulling it back into a long ponytail. Jessica and Heather watched her while they played cards on Heather's bed. 

            "Going to the library?" Jessica asked, picking a card from the top of the deck.

"Sure." Lily replied, giving her a smile through the mirror.

            Heather winked at Jessica. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you-" She directed at the redhead.

But Lily interrupted. "Have you finished that essay for McGonagall yet?" she blurted out, making a face at something she must have found unappealing about her appearance.

            Jessica looked confused at the question, but said, "No. I'll do it later. I'm in no hurry."

"Right." the reply came quickly, and Lily scurried towards the door just as fast. Right before she opened it, however, Heather opened her mouth again.

            "Oh yes, what I wanted to ask you." she said loudly, so that Lily had no choice but to listen. "Since you're going to the library, maybe you could just look up this little thing for me?" Heather smiled sweetly.

            The two of them watched as innocently as they could manage. Lily turned back towards them with a look of pure surprise and something else resembling annoyance.

@~~~~~~~~~~~@

**A/N: Sorry if this was a bit hurried, but I _do_ happen to be a little hurried and I wanted to go ahead and post anyway...and then I went to the eye doctor today and my eyes are still dilated so I can't really see much; you'll understand the mistakes then. Oh, and I know there were no Marauder appearances in this chapter, but they'll be back, don't worry!**

**Caz****- **Lily is that kind of person, but the only thing is, she's been acting like a different person lately, so it might take her a little longer than usual to figure out that her friends are just trying to annoy her. Thanks for coming back again! **Her Highness Hermione- **Lol, I like the name. It's just so...Hermione. You saying you appreciate my work made me smile =) I certainly appreciate you reviewing! **Carolinus**** Took- **Lol, nope, teachers can be rather evil. Funny though, that just goes to show how long it's been since I updated, because here it is, two months into summer and I'm replying to a review mentioning teachers...anyway, thanks again of course. **Kylaya****- **Thanks! I love new reviewers. Luke isn't really evil, he's just stupid. Lol, I'm still undecided about how long it should take him to realize what's going on with L/J. **Barbara- **I'm glad you enjoyed the Sirius and Remus bit, they're definitely entertaining people. And as you know, Lily did tell James...I hope you liked it! **Ash- **Lol, freaking out, huh? And there I was, feeling relieved that I had finished the chapter finally. Oh well, I'm sure you've completely forgotten by now ;) Thanks for taking the time to review! **BastsCleopatra****- **Aw, do you really think I write well? That's seriously the nicest thing anyone can tell me. Lol, cats getting ready to take over the world; now there's a thought! But at least my cat's not the only psycho one...or is that a bad thing? **Mooky****- **I'm glad you like me replying to reviews, it annoys some people. Lily's friends most certainly can be evil! But in a...friendly, sort of way. And Luke will always be annoying. Actually, I based the "whatcha doing?" thing from something that my stepaunt really does. That can seriously get annoying, trust me...Well, I will continue to write, no matter how many times I have to apologize for taking forever! **Freakyfroggurl22- **I suppose it was a bit of a cliffhanger, huh? And a 2 month one at that. Anyway, glad you're still liking it, thanks for sticking with me! **Nerdypurdy****- **Congrats again on that driver's license =) Probably out driving around now, aren't you, just so you can gloat? Lol, no, you're too nice for that. Not like some of my other friends...Anyway! My cat _is_ cute, of course. (No, that wasn't random. You mentioned her in your review, lol). Thanks again, I'll be talking to you soon! I can't believe you're leaving again...**Fiery red-haired girl- **You're always reviewing and I love you for it! I don't have all that many people who always take the time to review, so it means something. Oh, and about babbling, trust me, I do it all the time. So I don't mind at all if you do! Hope you still think the story's fun to read. **Gryffspopgurl****- **Aw, thank you! I hope you continue to read! **JingleJake9- **Lol, nope, I'm not trying to make Luke stupid just cause he's American, because I'm an American too! I know quite a few stupid ones, but they're all over the place...no, Luke's just stupid on his own. Funny though, English people do like to call us stupid...bastards. (No offence, English people. I'm just kidding, of course.) Thanks for reviewing! **Frozen Quill- **I like the new name! Haha, Lily does get angry easily, I'll probably put more of that in chapter 11, but we'll see. And she'd probably punch James if he turned her hair green...you're right, vanilla coke is good =) Thanks for another review! **Everblue3- **Hello again! Yes, Luke the dolt. Describes him perfectly. I'm glad last chapter amused you. I hope this one wasn't too, uh...rushed is the word that comes to mind. Anyway, thanks as usual. **VLBVLB- **Happy you think so! Ty! **Odder22- **Lol, he does come across as a complete idiot...thanks for reading/reviewing! **Toria****- **I hope, even after all this time, you did come back to read more...** Skyleia- **Lol, at least you'll keep reading! I know what you mean about school - so don't review if you don't have the time, although I do like hearing from you. Hope your summer's going well! **Golden.Slumbers****- **You're kidding, your birthday is May 11th? Lol, that's weird...'88 too? And you're still reading the story! And I was reading your profile- I have to agree- book 5 was so sad! I was almost in tears over the death scene! _How _could she do this to us? And now I'm stuck waiting for book 6...let's just hope it doesn't take 3 years or I might die of anxiety! **StEfIfIeD****-** Lol, no offence taken, it _is_ a bit cliched! Thanks for reviewing! **High?D****- **Ty! I'm so glad to hear you like it, I certainly will continue, but you'll probably get annoyed with my taking forever to update. =) **MonkeyGurl1- **Thanks, I will!

**A/N: Alrighty then...I'll see you guys sometime, uh, soon of course. Thanks for all the kind reviews and I hope you're all having a fun summer!**

**~Emily~**


	11. Tempers and Sirius's Ass

Chapter 11- Tempers and Sirius's Ass

"What, did you _offer_ to look up goblin rebellions for her?" James asked incredibly, one arm wrapped around Lily's waist, and the other holding her hair behind her. She turned her head sideways and gave him a very edgy look.    

"And what do you think?" she muttered, turning back to the gigantic book on the table in front of her.

James sighed. He should have known that her defenseless demeanor wasn't going to last. "I think you shouldn't tell them that we…I mean _you're going to the library every night."_

She snapped the book shut and shifted in his lap. "Then what would you rather me tell them?"

"Well…"

She huffed, "Don't answer that!" and hopped to her feet. "Damn that Heather! I'm going to get her back for this!"

            "Sure, I can see how that works…you let out your rage on a friend who unknowingly asked you to do her a favor when you told her you were going to the library." He tapped his chin, "yep, sounds wonderful."

            Lily slammed the book back onto its shelf, earning a look from the librarian. "You don't know my friends like I do!"   
            "Whatcha doin'?" 

Lily spun around, her face bright red. "Now is _not_ the time Luke!"

            Luke appeared taken aback, his blue eyes questioning. "Well I was only-"

"Save it man, she's in a hissy."

            She turned back around. "_Excuse_ me?"

James clamped his mouth shut and tried to look innocent.

~*~

            Jessica stifled a laugh into her pillow. "I can just see Lily now, that was brilliant Heather!"

            "I told you," Heather replied with a grin, brushing dark hair out of her face. "Now do you agree that it's much more fun to wait until she admits it herself?"

            "Yeah, I guess you were right…wow, that's a first." Jessica smiled, pretending to contemplate. She got a smack in the head for it, but what else is new?

            There was an extended silence, both of them grinning stupidly into the air. Heather suddenly suggested, "Let's go down to the common room, I'm bored."

            Jessica nodded and they set off. It wasn't too late, so there was still a considerable amount of people sitting in chairs, on the floor, and frankly all over the place. The two girls spotted three of the Marauders and sat near them.

            "Hello!" Jessica said loudly, causing them to look up from what might have been a "private" meeting. Sirius grinned up at her and replied, 

            "Welcome! Sit down and feast with us!"  
"But there's no food."

            "Yes, I know that." He replied as if they were the stupid ones.  
Heather and Jessica exchanged a glance and bit their lips to restrain smiles.

            The boys quickly started talking about quidditch, and naturally Jessica joined in, being the fanatic that she was.

            "I completely agree!" she yelled, causing some first years to look over. 

Heather, however, was not quite as enthralled. Sure, quidditch was fun. But she heard enough about it with Jessica around all the time. She became fixed on a piece of parchment lying on the ground behind Sirius. It was rather shriveled and blank, she wondered why he had not already thrown it out…

            "What are you staring at?" Sirius' voice broke her thoughts.

"Huh?"

            Peter laughed nervously, shifting and almost reaching for the parchment but pulling back at a look from Remus, who said, "Why Padfoot, of course she's just staring at your ass!"

            "What?" Heather exclaimed, looking bewildered at the normally quiet Remus. "Why would I be doing that?"

            Sirius gasped. "Are you saying my ass isn't nice?" He made a hurt face at the thought, causing Jessica to laugh.

            "Of course your ass is nice, you know that…everyone knows that."

Sirius gave her a smug smile. "Yes, you're right. Everyone _does_ know that."

            "Oh honestly." Heather rolled her eyes.

~*~

            James was very puzzled, lying back in his dorm. His three friends snored around him, but he was wide awake, staring at the blank ceiling. What should he do about Lily? She was so confusing, but at the same time, he loved that about her. He loved that he never knew whether she was going to bite his head off or snog him senseless. It was like a flip of the coin, and it kept everything exciting. 

            Then again, he couldn't help but wonder how she could keep the fact that she had been physically abused from everyone for as long as she had. It was terrible! He was seriously considering giving this guy a what for, but then again, Lily had warned him not to. So he'd be better off doing it the legal way…_Which is what? Telling Dumbledore? _No, he wasn't sure what to do yet, but he would do _something_.

            Meanwhile, he decided, he should act more understanding of Lily. He should help her out more, not snap at her as much…_Yes, that's a very good idea. I'll start tomorrow. _He drifted off to sleep much faster.

~*~

            McGonagall surveyed the classroom, filled with the seventh year Gryffindors. They stared back at her in slight apprehension, as usual. "You all know that you need to choose a career very soon. I know you talked to me about this back in fifth year, but I still would like each of you to take a moment today to write down your goals on a piece of parchment and place it on my desk." She paused and sighed. "I also thought you would be pleased to get out of learning something new today."

            Sirius nodded vigorously and she said no more, having given them their instructions. Each student brought out their parchment and ink, and soon the sound of scratching quills filled the room. Sirius seemed particularly intent on his work. His lips were pursed and he was in deep concentration.

            James turned to Lily once they had both turned their brief papers in, and sweetly asked, "What did you write down?"

            She glared at him and replied through clenched teeth, "I want to be an auror." Sure, she was supposed to be acting like she hated him. Only, today, it was so much easier for her to do that for some reason. And James simply wasn't taking the hint…it was slowly driving her insane. He nodded, giving her a stupid smile.

            "Do you need any extra quills?" he asked. "I have tons."

She grunted and turned away, back to her friends. "What did you do last night?"  
            They chuckled and glanced at Sirius, "Talked about Sirius' ass, if you must know."  
            "Excuse me?"  
"Never mind, not important." Heather replied.

            Lily was still very annoyed with Heather and felt no shame in letting it show, so she had been directing her questions to Jessica all day. She ignored Heather, who was inwardly very pleased because of this. She had even gotten her essay on goblin rebellions done early, in addition to pissing Lily off, who had absolutely no idea that she was being set up.

            James, meanwhile, was tentatively tapping Lily's arm. "What?" Lily said loudly in annoyance.

            Unlike his usual self, he ignored her tone and continued to act sweet. "I was just wondering if you needed any help with your homework tonight."

            "Oh, sounds like a date to me." Heather said with a wink.

Lily wasn't sure which one of them to glare at first, but luckily was interrupted by Remus anyways. Sirius had just returned to his seat after placing his parchment in front of McGonagall, and he looked rather pleased with himself.

            "What did you put down?" Remus was asking.

"Oh, just stuff."

            "Like what?" Peter said quietly.

"I want to be the first black president in America." He said proudly, puffing out his chest.

                 "You aren't American!" Peter protested.

"So, I can act like it! Not all Americans are like Luke!" He glanced over at the blonde, whose nose was almost touching his parchment while he tried the scratch his head with the hand that was holding his quill.

     "No, but I don't see how that helps you. And you still can't be president, you weren't born there." Peter stated knowledgeably, feeling important.

James momentarily forgot Lily and butt in, "I think the more important problem is that you aren't black Padfoot, sorry." He sniggered.

 Remus grinned. "I'm with Prongs."

Lily looked bewildered, wondering if this was what their normal conversations consisted of.

            "Black." McGonagall's voice interrupted them. "Would you come up here a moment please?" She looked like she was trying not to smile, but you never really knew with her. She might be fighting off a glare.

            "Well I think that settles it." Remus said, looking at Peter, who nodded. 

James turned back to Lily, "I'll carry your books back to the common room for you." She glowered at him.

            The bell rang in a few moments and students scattered, most of them heading back to the Gryffindor tower, since this was their last class of the day.

            Three Marauders, Jessica, and Heather all sprang out of the classroom, laughing loudly and talking about Sirius and his idiocy. Lily and James trailed behind them, letting themselves drift farther and farther apart from their friends.

            "Well I think you can act normal now, they probably can't hear anymore."

"James, shut up." Lily snapped.  
            "This day's been alright, don't you think? Not much work to do at all! Sirius is so dumb…"

            "James." She said warningly.  
He continued, "Do you want to meet me in the Heads room? I mean, whatever you want, either way…doesn't matter to me."

            "For the love of God, James, shut it!" She raised her voice. "You've been driving me up the wall all day! Enough with your nice attitude! I don't want your charity!"

            Since the last of that had been a yell, their friends overheard and stopped to glance behind at Lily and James.

"Holy cow." Heather said.

"The Hindus would agree with you there." Jessica said, smirking.

"Right, let's get out of here." Sirius said loudly, while they watched Lily's face become darker and darker. They hurried off.

Lily and James had stopped in the hallway, with her looking ready to hit him. He was confused and wasn't exactly sure how he should be reacting. "Uh…I was only trying to help."

"I know bloody well why you're acting like this, and I don't like it! Just because I told you about what happened a long time ago, doesn't mean that you can start acting like I can't take care of myself! Because I sure as hell can!"

"I know that, I just-"

"And don't give me that 'but I love you' crap, because I don't give a damn! I've had a bad day, okay? Actually, I've had a bad week. My friends are beginning to drive me nuts, Luke is trying to kill you, although he doesn't know that it's you yet, and to top it all off, you've started acting like an obsessive maniac!"  
            "Er- I'm sorry?" He tried. Then he remembered that this really wasn't his fault and began to get angry. "You have no gratitude, do you? And you're so self-absorbed! Haven't we had this conversation before? Well I'm sick of you thinking you're the only person here!"  
            Her mouth dropped open. "I don't think I'm the-"

"I only wanted to help you out, and here you are yelling at me!"

            She grinded her teeth together furiously, "Well you deserved it!"  
"If that's how you feel, then I might as well forget about you altogether! How about that?"

            "Fine! You do that! And just so you know, I _won't_ be meeting you in the Heads room! Not tonight, or tomorrow night, or any night!  So don't expect it!"

            He gave a rough laugh. "Oh don't worry, I won't be waiting for you."

They stalked off separately, their faces heated and fists clenched.

~*~ 

            Jessica and Heather descended the staircase to the common room, wanting to get as far away as possible from Lily, who was as mad as they had ever seen her. At the moment, neither of her friends really cared to know why. It had something to do with James. 

            "I wonder if James is angry too, or if it's just Lily."

"Yeah. Dunno."

            Jessica spotted Sirius leaning over his books near the foot of the stairs. Remembering their conversation the previous night, she snickered and walked over to him, firmly smacking him in the ass.

            He paused for a moment, and then tilted his head towards her. Jessica's grin faded as quickly as it had come- that wasn't Sirius.

She blushed, something that very rarely happened to her. "Oh…er…sorry- thought you were someone else…um, I'll be going then…" She walked off, thoroughly embarrassed, and spotted the real Sirius across the room. Heather, who was at her side, suddenly began to chuckle.

@~~~~~~~~~@

A/N: Thanks for reading! Or maybe I should say thanks for waiting, since once again it's been awhile since the last update. Though I do have my reasons, which I've already explained in the new chapter of BA, so I don't really care to repeat it all, for the sake of those who read both stories. Lol, actually I'm just lazy. And it's late. And this is a really boring and pointless Author's note, so I'll just be going now…after the thanks, that is.

Lamina Court- It sort of made sense, to answer your question…although, you don't remember what your question was, so let's just forget the whole thing! Thanks for the 'good luck with moving in', we're actually almost finished now, but crap is everywhere. I'm finding a lot of stuff I forgot existed, so it's sort of like Christmas lol. Okay, I really need to go to bed or something – I'll shut up now. Carolinus Took- I know, that was so sad…of all of the people JK could have killed off, she had to pick him! Thanks for reviewing, though, lol. High?D- Glad you find it amusing. Her friends can be mean, yes, but so can Lily, and James, and all the rest of them. Hope you liked this chapter! Jamie Noble- Well that's good enough for me! I never know what to say either…SummrMagic- It's funny you should say that, since that's what I usually think about stories that I like. It's just hard to imagine that people might actually look forward to these updates the way I look forward to my fav stories being updated…yeah, or maybe they don't =) Thanks for reading! Lola- Lol, I feel bad, I took so long to write this…yeah, that's pretty much why I like L/J stories too. Oh, and we're finally out of the hotel! It's nice to have my own room. Although the computer needs to be fixed now lol, lightning knocked the modem out – so now I'm using my stepdad's laptop. Oh well, works for me. Sakura Moon- yes, Lily's definitely hates to love, I have to agree with you there ;) Luke is still trying to kill James, but then again, he has no idea that it's James he's supposed to be killing yet, so we'll see how James reacts to the whole thing probably next chapter. And then yes, he might play a prank on Chris. I'm still deciding that one though. KristiexxNguyen- Sure I'll email you! Just after I post this – provided that I don't forget, that is. Lol, I'm bad about that sometimes. Starling94- Lol, thanks so much for the every chapter reviews. I'm glad you're finding the story amusing! Hope you continue reading =) Lexie13- Hey! You have me on your favorites list. I'm really flattered ;) I never know what to say to people in review thanks either, as you can probably tell…Under the moons Influence- Lol, I know what you mean with those 'all the same' stories. It's so much harder these days to find a good story. Not that I'm saying mines really good or anything, but you know what I mean…I do try to be different though, if I can.  Thanks for reviewing! Frozen Quill- Happy-Luke. Lol. I've heard the best descriptions of Luke in reviews. I think that's one of them =) You're right, everyone basically wants to kill each other- how did that happen? I seriously didn't plan that one out lol. Lily Among the Thorns-89- Lol, I lied again. It wasn't soon. But I do thank you for reading anyway! Toria- You've got the right idea! I say soon and it ends up being the opposite- I think I jinx myself or something. Anyway, glad you've come back again. It's really very flattering that people even care since these updates take forever and are always so short ;) Golden.Slumbers- You aren't a horrible reviewer, of course not! I tried to add more Marauder stuff in this chapter, just for you =) I know, if JK kills off Remus, I think she'll have to answer to me! Remus has always been my favorite, and that would really suck…anyway, thanks again. Cho-Look-Alike- Lol. Lily- tell her friends? I don't know if that's going to happen anytime soon, but I guess you never know…Slytherin-fanatic- I'll keep updating, I just can't promise it'll be soon, because whenever I say that, it ends up being longer than usual! Thanks for r/r! Kylaya- Lol, yes, she is losing vital time with James' lips, and it's obviously beginning to make her very angry. I agree, James is sweet, but he can be a bit dim sometimes…Emerald2- Lol, Lily won't be able to stand Luke too much longer, I'll promise you that. Brunet-barbie-84- You've got that one right, it does always take me so long! I'm hoping that I'll break that habit, but I refuse to say it, because if I do, it will never happen! Thanks for another review! Angelic-devil11- Yep, I think we all want to know when the 6th book is coming out now, because we're all so impatient (at least I know I am). Wow, you are the 200th reviewer *hands out a ribbon*. Now that's special- I bet you think it's all worth it now lol. Me- Okay, so there was nothing much about what James is going to do about Chris in this chapter, but I promise more of that in chapter 12! And thanks for coming back to read more! Freakyfroggurl22- Lol, yeah she was caught in the act. You know, it's really nice to see that you're still reviewing, after so long. You're probably one of my longest reviewers, actually ;) Jctigerwolf4e- I was hoping it wasn't too sappy, so I'm glad you don't think so! Hope you keep reading! Elven Dagger- Thanks, I definitely will! How could I not when I have people telling me they like it? Akili Daniels- Lol, you're right. The next step is always to write a new chapter…I seem to have trouble with that sometimes. Alex'z Death Chic- Really? You think it's funny? Thanks! And yes, Luke is very dumb. I feel sort of weird, making him so dumb, since he's American, and I'm an American…but then again, I know a lot of dumb people lol, so I suppose it all works out alright. 

Okay, I was starting to fall asleep near the end there, so I think I'll be going to bed…thanks again to all of you. I won't even mention the next chapter, because if I do it'll end up taking longer than I think it will=)

~Emily~


	12. Dead Goldfish Crackers

**A/N: Ah, hello.**** I'm back again ;) I have not abandoned this story and have no intention to; however, I would say that we're nearing the end. Whether it's good news or bad news, there it is! And finally, here is chapter twelve…**

@~~~~~~~~~@

**Chapter 12- Dead Goldfish Crackers**

Only one small candle and the dim moonlight illuminated the seventh year girls' dorm. Lily's two best friends, Jessica and Heather, were seated on Lily's bed. 

          Heather's hands were white from gripping her robes, and her face was red from laughter. Stray strands of dark brown hair fluttered across her face. Jessica's face was red for a completely different reason; in fact she looked quite discontented. A pink tinge covered her cheeks, looking very uncomfortable there; Jessica was not easily embarrassed.

          "Oh, shut it," she said, narrowing her eyes at Heather. "It really wasn't that funny, you know." She rolled her blue eyes and looked away.

          Heather squeezed her own eyes shut and took a long breath to compose herself. But as soon as she opened them and saw Jessica, another fit of laughter ensued. "I beg – to differ," she said, catching her breath. "_You_ didn't see the look on your face after you realized that you had-" (more disjointed laughter) "-touched some stranger's ass." 

          Jessica flushed a darker shade of red. "Well…oh bloody hell. I hope I never see the guy again."  
           

          A rustle sounded from the other side of the dorm and the two of them looked up to find Lily emerging from the bathroom. Her dark auburn hair was still damp and pulled back from her face. She noticed her friends seated on her bed and sighed. 

           "I suppose my bed is more comfortable than either of yours?"

"Certainly." Heather replied, grinning. 

          Lily gave her a weak smile as she approached her dresser.

"You're not still angry with me, are you?" Heather inquired innocently.

          Lily, having a silent battle with the lotion bottle which refused to squirt, replied quietly, "No. Not really. I- what the hell! Ruddy bottle!" She pitched the lotion tube downward, causing lotion to splatter all over the floor. Sighing, she stepped over the mess and added, "I have other people to be angry with."

          "Like James?" Jessica asked, her face having returned to its usual pallor with the change in subject.

          "Bugger that one." Lily said absently, sitting in front of them on her bed. "He's not worth my time." When nobody replied, she continued. "Thinks he can accuse me of things, does he? Well he has a lot to answer for himself, he-"

          "Like what?" 

Jessica had spoken too soon, however, and Heather shot her an annoyed glance; Lily suddenly realized that she was talking to her friends and clamped her mouth shut with a quiet, "Not important." 

          Lily's whole demeanor seemed contained to Heather. Lily was never _absently_ angry; there was something more than James bothering her. Or maybe, Heather reflected, there was something more to what was going on with James. Either way, the hazel-eyed witch noted the sad sentiment in Lily's eyes and smiled reassuringly at her friend. Lily fiddled with a strand of her long hair and frowned. 

          Heather, intent upon cheering Lily up (if only to aggravate her later), grinned and said, "Guess what Jessica did just-" But she was cut off as Jessica promptly knocked her over with a pillow in the face.

~*~

            "Remember, be careful with your Engorging Charms; if cast the wrong way, they can be very painful," Professor Flitwick said loudly, moving among the seventh year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. 

          Jessica and Heather were looking rather hilarious, having cast several of the charms on each other already. Jessica's left ear was five times too large and Heather's nose was looking a little disproportional. Meanwhile, Sirius was yelping and clutching at his right hand; Peter was his partner and obviously the charm had been cast wrong, for it looked painful. 

          "And what is the practical application of this?" a Ravenclaw inquired with a supercilious expression. 

          James smirked and said, "There goes the fun-sucker again."

"What?" Remus turned towards him, trying to hide his lips, which were about three times larger.

          James took one look at the werewolf and burst out laughing. "Your- mouth-"

          Lily glanced up at him, taking in his mirthful expression and inescapably messy black hair, and glared. It had been a week already and they had not forgiven each other. Twirling her wand between her fingers, she pointed it casually at James' head and said the incantation. James moved before the yellow light hit him, and the spell hit Luke instead, square in the forehead. Lily had always been very good at charms; Luke's head swelled five times its normal size. Against her will, Lily's face broke into a grin.

          Sirius momentarily forgot his throbbing hand and glanced up. "Fits him well, doesn't it?" he nodded to himself. "Good one, Lily."

          Heather turned around to look at Lily, causing the redhead to laugh; her friend's right eye was looking way too big. "You look like a Picasso portrait," Lily smirked.

          "A what?" Jessica said. "Picato?"

Lily sighed. "Nevermind."

          "Muggle artist." Remus supplied, forgetting his big lips. Everyone began to laugh when they saw him, causing his cheeks to flame. "Bugger it, I don't like this charm. I'm asking Flitwick what the counter charm is."          He set off to find the professor, and Sirius couldn't help but call after him, "Be careful not to swallow anyone on your way over!"

          Heather's eye was now very bloodshot. She rubbed it furiously and exclaimed, "It's so much easier to poke yourself in the eye with a wand when it's this big!"

          Lily grinned and looked away when James tried to meet her eye for the hundredth time that day. She had no intention of making it up with him just yet.

          Hours later, the four Marauders and three girls were seated at the end of the Gryffindor table, their faces restored to normalcy. 

          "Would you pass the potatoes, big lips?" Sirius asked casually, looking at Remus. Remus' eyes narrowed and he ignored his friend. 

          "We're out," James told him, pointing to the empty bowl. "And where's big head anyway?" He was, of course, referring to Luke, who had not yet made an appearance at the dinner table.

          "Dunno." Jessica said. "But here's to hoping that he doesn't show." 

Sirius growled something about pigs and potatoes, and left his seat in search of more food. James was staring at a bag of cheese goldfish that Lily was holding, a snack that she saved for random occasions.

          "What are those?" he asked.

"Goldfish crackers." Lily replied, not looking up at him.

          "Can I see one?"

Lily supplied the bag, but refused to make any kind of eye contact with him. Tentatively, James reached in and pulled out a small orange cracker. 

          "Interesting things these muggles think up." James said, examining the goldfish. Lily snorted. James suddenly glanced at Sirius' glass of water and a thought crossed his mind. After glancing up to make sure that Sirius was still questing after the potatoes, he casually dropped the goldfish cracker into his friend's water. It floated to the bottom. Peter snickered.

          "Very mature." Lily commented, rolling her eyes and snatching her bag of crackers back.

          Jessica glanced up and spotted the glass of water now sporting a fish cracker, and burst out laughing. "Aw, come on Lily, you have to admit that's amusing."

          "I hope he tries to drink it." Heather said, watching carefully as Sirius made his way back to the table. 

          James was furiously trying to contain his laughter when his best friend seated himself again with a pleased smile and a plateful of potatoes. 

          "What?" Sirius asked, frowning. He raised his glass of water to drink, glanced down at it, and then gave a start. "What did you do to my water?!" he demanded, glaring at James.

          "Nothing at all."

Sirius peered into his cup. "What is this, anyway?"  
          "A goldfish cracker," Lily said, holding up her orange bag. 

Sirius smirked. "It is rather funny looking, now that I think about it. Can I see that bag, Lily?"  
          Sighing, Lily handed him her crackers, resolving to never bring food that was new to them to dinner again. Sirius grinned and dumped the rest of the crackers into his glass. Half of them sunk, and the other half floated near the top.

          "Interesting…" both he and James were too busy staring into the cup to notice when Luke walked up to the table. The blonde looked over their shoulders and spotted the glass of water filled with goldfish crackers. 

          "What are those?" he asked, scratching his head.

"Goldfish." Remus said, snickering.

          "Are they dead?" Luke said.

The seven Gryffindors stared up at Luke, wondering if he could possibly be serious. For a long moment, nobody said anything.

          And then, sealing his eternal idiocy, Luke added, "Why'd you kill 'em?"

          At this, they all burst out laughing, leaving Luke to become confused. He smiled uncertainly, not quite sure what they were laughing at but pretending that he did.

          "I think-" James said in between bouts of laughter, "that I'm going to piss my pants."

          "I- think – I already did." Sirius clutched at his chest. 

Jessica swiped at her bright blue eyes, which were leaking tears of mirth. "Well I guess that means that I won't be smacking your ass anytime soon."

          Lily buried her face in her hands, laughing uproariously. "That has to be the funniest thing that's happened in awhile." She commented after regaining her composure. 

          Even James couldn't disagree with her there.

~*~

          Lily and her friends, having sobered from dinner earlier that evening, were seated in the common room. Lily was leaning over a large book with a quill in her hand.

          "Lily, that essay isn't due until next week," Jessica pointed out, playing with a strand of her blonde hair. 

          "Yeah, I know," the redhead replied absently, biting her lip in thought. 

          Heather studied her friend. She and Jessica had not gotten a chance lately to try to get Lily to admit her relationship with James, since Lily had not been going to meet him anywhere. Heather was becoming a little discouraged; if the two of them never made up, how would she ever squeeze the truth out of Lily? They had to be reconciled somehow…

          James entered the room, trailed by Sirius and Remus. Peter was nowhere to be seen. The three boys seated themselves in chairs around the girls. James and Lily's eyes met momentarily, before they both looked away angrily.

          Heather, feeling that no time was better than the present to fix things, said, "What happened between you and James, Lily?"

          Lily's emerald eyes snapped up, her cheeks tinged pink. "Absolutely nothing," she spat, glaring at James.

          "Right," James mocked. "You're just always _right_, Lily."

Jessica scooted away from Lily when she slammed the book in her lap shut. "Don't try to shove this on me, you arrogant prat! I didn't ask for your sympathy!"  
          "Sympathy? But I thought-" Jessica was cut off, however, when James leap from his chair, glaring down at Lily.

          "Why don't we just tell them all about it Lily? Come on, let's tell them what-"

          "Don't you dare, James." She said in a low growl, her eyes flashing.

"Let's just snog and be happy!" Jessica tried, waving her arms about. It was no use, though, James and Lily only had eyes for each other; and very angry eyes they were.

          "Everyone," James said in a loud voice, watching Lily's expression, "Lily here and I- oof."

          Lily had launched herself onto him, causing them both to topple over. She sat on top of his stomach, one hand clamped over his mouth and the other holding one of his arms down. Her legs were situated on either side of him. "I warned you," she growled, her face close to his. 

          "What was that, Prongs? You're a little muffled." Sirius cupped a hand to his ear.

          Lily and James didn't even hear him, because they were too busy exchanging heated whispers. After a moment, Lily dragged James to his feet and tugged him towards the portrait hole, announcing to everyone that they would be back later.

          "_Why_ is that guy staring at me?" Jessica suddenly exclaimed, causing everyone to look over at her.

          Heather swung her head around and snickered. "I do believe that you smacked his ass a week or so ago."

          Jessica flushed and mumbled, "I didn't recognize him."

Sirius exclaimed, "What?!"

          "Oh, nothing." Heather assured him. "If it makes you feel better, she meant to smack your ass, not his."  
          This only confused Sirius more, judging by his expression. Heather stared at the portrait hole and said, "I wonder where they're off to now."

          "Probably snogging." Remus said, looking up from his book.

Jessica stared at him. "You_ know_?" she asked in an amazed tone.

          He looked confused. "Know what?"

"Now see what you've done!" Heather shook her head at Jessica. "You've gone off and let out the secret!"

          "No really, know what?" Sirius leaned forward expectantly. Sighing, Heather began to relate the tale of when they had overheard Lily and James snogging one day. Meanwhile, Jessica was blushing bright red as the guy whose ass she had smacked winked at her.

~*~

          Outside the portrait hole, Lily pulled James to the side of the corridor. "They know!" she whispered vehemently.

          "What?" James asked, staring at her. 

"They know about us! They must, the way that Heather- oh, I could just hit them!" James backed up a few steps before she grabbed onto his arm again. "I'm not finished with _you_ yet!" 

          "How do you know that they know?" 

"It's not important," Lily hissed, "they just know."

          "So what?" James asked, flinching when she looked like she was going to hit him.

          "And _you almost told them!" She placed her hands on her hips and James suddenly felt very small._

          "Hey, don't blame everything on me! You're the one with problems!" 

"Just because I don't trust guys anymore – urgh!" she let out a frustrated yell.

          A moment of silence ensued, and then James softened slightly. "I'm sorry Lily."

          "What?" her head whipped around towards him, green eyes fastening on his face.

          "For everything. I didn't know how to take it when you told me about that guy and, well, I guess I sort of understand the way you're acting now…"

          "Well I don't." she slumped against the wall. "I don't understand it at all. I'm such an idiot." She rubbed her eyes. "I should be the one apologizing James."

          He smiled softly and pulled her into a hug. "Let's just forget about it. I've missed our late night snogging sessions too much."

          "Even though my horrible friends made me do research…and now I know why! Bloody little sneaks!"

          Curiosity got the better of James; he decided to take a chance and asked her, "Does this mean that we can be officially together now? That we can tell everyone?" He pulled away slightly to watch her reaction.

          She bit her lip in consideration, something he had always found cute. "No."

          "What?" he exclaimed. There was no chance in hell that he was letting this all start over again. 

          "No. We're not letting Jessica and Heather off that easy," she replied, smirking. "They don't know that we know about them knowing. Two can play this game."

          James groaned, getting the feeling that he was going to be dragged into another one of Lily Evans' brilliant ideas without his consent.

@~~~~~~~~~@

**A/N: I know, I owe you readers a much longer chapter after that wait, and I'm sorry. In any case, I hope this chapter was acceptable enough and as I said earlier, this story is nearing the end of its life. Oh yes, and that bit about the goldfish really did happen to my friends and I (only it was a lunch lady and not Luke). You all probably didn't find it very funny, but oh, if you had been there…I think we all laughed for an entire twenty minutes. The funniest part was the lady's accent (hick accent, I live in ****Louisville**** and there are still some accents to be found around the city), and she was absolutely serious about the goldfish being real!**

**Elven Dagger-**Thank you again. Sirius' ass is indeed always an amusing subject. **KristiexxNguyen**- **I'm sorry, I do tend to leave chapters at annoying places ;) And yes, I'll email you once I post this. **Remy's Gurl- **Hola! Glad to hear that you liked it and I hope you've been kind enough to come back and read another chapter. **LJstagflower4e/JCtigerwolf4e- **Lol, thanks. I happened to find it pretty funny as well, but that's just me and my twisted sense of humor for you. ****Carolinus**** Took- Maybe you're right, she might have had no more use for Sirius. But I dunno, I think that even though he's gone now, he'll still have some sort of part to play in the rest of the story. *Shrug* Perhaps not. Anyway, thanks again! ****PeRkieGuRL****- As always, thanks very much! If I may ask, which one of my stories is your favorite? Not that it matters, I just like to know what works and what doesn't. **Shortnsassy******- Aw, thank you! I'll bet it _was life-altering, lol. At least, I have learned during the course of writing it that it is wrong to smack unsuspecting guys' asses, for things might go wrong. _****Littlex1- Well, I have three stories that I'm currently working on. And I'm glad you haven't given up on me updating yet, thanks very much! ****K[r]cube- Lol, thank you. I get some sort of inane satisfaction out of being called evil mwuhaha! ****Kylaya**- **Nah, they wouldn't divorce. Lol, if anything, Lily would push James back into the marriage. Thanks much ;) ****Catherine24- Really? Some people have found that aspect of this fic a little annoying, because Lily is so persistent about it (hating guys 'cause of her past). In any case, thank you! ****M*andy, luvin yah- Changed your penname, did you? Well, you got your wish- they're back together again…for now…****Lily Among the Thorns-89- Thanks so much, as usual. I'm glad you like how the story is turning out. ****Ayse**- **I'm happy you find it funny! Not everyone shares my sense of humor, so thank you =) **Alex'z****** Death Chic- Nah, I don't think you're weird. I'm the weirdest person I know, anyway. Lol, and I'm rooting for Luke's undying stupidity too. ****Akili** Daniels- **I agree, I love having them conflict along the way. Stories where the two of them have no problems from the moment they hook up onward are just irritating. Arguing is fun! Or at least making them do it is. ****PalmTreeBlood****- Lol, glad you like it ;) **FireBringer******- Thank you! ****StarFire1989- Thanks for taking the time to read all of my stories! And please update  yours =) **FireSeeker******- Lol, when I got that review email, I only saw the 'it sucked' part until I scrolled down. Anyway, thanks for leaving me a review! **A.M.bookworm247- **As usual, thank you. And you don't have to worry about reviews, I understand when there just isn't time =) ****SCUBAchk****- Aw, thank _you_ for reviewing it. **Sally- **Heh, I always loved the word bloody. I'm such an American lol. **Lexygirl0- **Well here's more, even if it's been forever. Thanks again. ****Theresa- The ending will be along soon, I promise! ****Ali- Of course I'll update…and it's the same day you reviewed, too ;)**

**A/N: Why am I so tired? Err, we had a snow day too. Well, more of an ice day really, but you know. It was awesome =) With any luck, it'll all freeze over again overnight and we might get a delay in the morning…Either way, my math book is looking more ominous by the minute, so I think I'd better stop rambling here. Thanks to you all one more time, and hopefully chapter 13 will be up soon!**

**~Emily~ **


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